The Pandorica Opens: A Sequel
by thesmileofawinchester
Summary: Third and final part in a series, beginning with 'Remembrance', which can be found on my profile. This fic is heavily based on the two final episodes of series 5, with a few major components changed. Spoilers... - 11/Amy/Rory/River
1. Chapter 1

_This is the third part in an ongoing story, which begins with **'Remembrance'**, which can be found on my profile. I do not own any of the characters. This fic is heavily based on the episodes in series 5; The Pandorica Opens and The Big Bang, and much of the dialogue and action that is in this will have been borrowed straight from the show.

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_An established fact in the Doctor's life, and subsequently in the lives of all who travel with him, is that time can be rewritten. The dead were not walking about the streets of Cardiff in 1860, William Shakespeare's lost play did not get destroyed with the Carrionites, and Pete Tyler didn't die alone in a road, victim of hit and run.

But once time has been rewritten, what happens to what would have been?

The Doctor and Amy, instead of going straight to Space Florida, stumbled across Rose Tyler and forced time to change; altering their lives. Their adventures do not change the fact that the cracks in the skin of the universe are still there, the Pandorica is opening, the silence is falling, and Vincent Van Gogh has created the fateful painting, beginning the end of everything.

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The Doctor and Amy, despite their good intentions, had not left the TARDIS for days. After leaving the beach behind, they parked the ship in an unnoticed area of space, and went about their business. Usually, the Doctor became bored with staying in the same place for so long, for time to run in one continuous fashion; forward, but with Amy's company he found he could stave the boredom off quite efficiently as they rejoiced in their new found relationship. But, eventually, they found themselves wanting more, and decided to head off on a new adventure.

"Where are we going?" Amy called to the Doctor as he fiddled with the controls.

"No idea, like it best that way." He told her with a grin, a hand skimming around her waist as he moved to the controls nearer to her. She shivered with delight at his warm hand around her, even the slightest of touches from him was delicious, now that she allowed herself to acknowledge it. Shame he was too busy piloting the ship to pay more attention. "Oooo, can you go downstairs and hit the polar exomorphic extrapolator?"

"Which one?" She asked as she peeled herself away and walked down the steps.

"The big green button, flashy lights, a little bit pink." He told her, dashing to the other end of the console.

"Gotcha." She called back as she pushed it in. She looked up to see the Doctor dashing around above her, visible through the glass. She smiled happily to see her Time Lord in action. Her smile soon faded as her eyes caught something on the floor near her feet, a small red box.

Kneeling down to pick it up, she examined its soft texture. It had become dusty, rolling around in the depths of the TARDIS, and she suddenly felt guilty. She sat down on the swing hanging from the glass ceiling. She took the ring out of the box and studied it, looking at its simple, human nature.

"Vavoom!" The Doctor cried, leaning out of a hole in the ceiling and looking at her upside down.

"Va-what?" She asked confused. The Doctor didn't answer, instead looking at what she held in her hands. She looked back at it too with a sad smile. "It was on the floor down here. It must've fallen down."

The Doctor dropped down clumsily, but stuck his hands in his pockets as if he'd made his entrance with grace and dignity. "Must've." He repeated. "You okay?"

"Yeah." Amy told him, not quite lying. "It's just weird. I had this whole other life planned, and now it never even existed."

"It does in you." He reminded her gently, unobtrusively monitoring her emotions via their empathic link.

"I know. I don't want to forget him; he was a huge part of my life..." She looked up at the Doctor.

"You don't have to. I'm not asking you to." He reassured her. He didn't move any closer, knowing not to push her right now.

"Is it okay that I'm sad, yeah?" She asked. "That's not wrong?"

"Amy, your best friend, your fiancé died." He told her. "It's natural to be sad; it'd be weird if you weren't."

"But I'm so happy about us!" She exclaimed, putting down the ring in her lap, now turning to the Doctor.

"Do the two have to be mutually exclusive?" He asked her, and she smiled softly. "Do you want to go back to before?" He asked her. "Before this started?"

"No." She told him, standing up and walking over to him. "No, I don't." She put the ring back in its box and snapped the lid shut and smiled at the Doctor. He could more than see the smile, though; he could feel it, inside. She was happy; there was sadness in there too, but she was happy. She was okay. "Can we just put this somewhere safe?"

"Of course." He replied, and they both walked back up the steps to the console together. Pressing a few buttons on the console, a drawer slid out, a few inches wide and thick. "It'll be safe there." He told her. She looked at him, hesitant for a portion of a second, before putting it in, and the drawer slid shut behind it; a little bit of Rory, hidden in the TARDIS.

"So what were you 'Vavooming' about?" Amy asked, and the Doctor began working controls around the console.

"I can't believe I've never thought of this before," He dashed to another part of the console, arms flailing around everywhere and Amy chuckled in delight. "It's genius. Right," He pulled down a lever, and the ship jolted. "Landed. Come on." He walked past her, taking her hand.

"Where are we?" She asked as she struggled to keep up with his long legs.

"Planet One," He told her, slowing down. "The oldest planet in the universe, and there's a cliff of pure diamond, and according to legend on the cliff there is writing, letters," He begun gesturing with his hand to demonstrate what letters were. "A message from the dawn of time, and no one knows what it says cos no one's ever translated it. Till today."

"What happens today?" Amy asked apprehensively with a smile on her face.

"Us." He pointed at her nose and dragged her to the door. "The TARDIS can translate anything, all we have to do is open the doors and read the very first words in recorded history."

Amy smiled as they strode majestically to the doors, the Doctor opening them with aplomb. The planet beyond was filled with vegetation, mushrooms growing fifty feet high; Amy felt like Alice in Wonderland, though admittedly not for the first time in her life.

They both looked straight to the cliff, and Amy laughed, grabbing the Doctor and pinching his cheek in amusement. Across the cliff, carved into the ruddy diamond land, lay the words _'Hello Sweety'_, with what looked like coordinated beneath it.

"Vavoom." She repeated.

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_Right, my lovelies, first chapter up! I spoilt you a bit in Automatic Sands, with a new chapter (or two) each day, but that probably wont be happening here; University work is stepping up, I'm not writing this over holidays. _

_Love you all, don't forget to leave a review!  
_


	2. Chapter 2

"Right place?" Amy asked, following the Doctor out of the TARDIS doors onto a grassy hill.

"Just followed the coordinates on the cliff face," The Doctor told her, checking his watch. "Earth, Britain, 1.22 AM." He tapped it again, glancing at the sky. "No, PM." He then looked out at the view from the hill, seeing a huge field filled with tents, and humans dressed in armour, helmets and red robes. "No... AD."

"That's a roman legion!" Amy said happily, taking the Doctors hand and snuggling into his arm.

"Oh yeah..." He said, attempting to pay more attention to the view than the beautiful girl pressed against him. "The Romans invaded Britain several times during this period."

"Oh, I know," Amy grinned at him, squeezing his hand as she teased. "My favourite topic at school; Invasion of the _hot_ Italians." The Doctor looked at her, trying to keep the tinge of jealousy from his face, and, of course, from her. "Yeah, I did get marked down for the title."

A Roman soldier came running up the hill, slightly overweight and clearly out of breath; a far cry from the _hot Italians_ Amy had been expecting. The man had a smear of red lipstick across his cheek. He knelt on the ground, placing a fist on his chest. "Hail Ceaser!"

"Hi." The Doctor replied, surprised, confused, but maintaining confidence in his tone as he raised his eyebrows to Amy.

"Welcome to Britain, we are honoured by your presence." The Soldier greeted him, still from the ground.

"Well, you're only human." The Doctor said pompously, and Amy grinned at him, amused by his authority. "Arise... Roman person." He instructed.

"Why does he think you're Ceaser?" Amy muttered to the Doctor, and he gave a slight shrug.

"Cleopatra will see you now." The soldier announced and turned to leave. Amy and the Doctor exchanged excited looks, a raise of the eyebrows, before following him, hand in hand down the hill.

They found themselves inside clearly the grandest of the tents, made of what seemed to be Red Velvet. Amy admired it, but figured it probably wouldn't work very well in the cold, wet English countryside. Stepping inside fully, Amy and the Doctor found themselves confronted with a familiar face, although just as surprising as usual. River Song, playing dress up in Cleopatra's clothing.

"River!" Amy greeted, looking around again. "Hi."

The Doctor walked straight up to her, pursing his lips as he weighed up what to say. He finally settled on something. "You graffitied the oldest cliff-face in history." He scolded.

"_You_ wouldn't answer your phone." She replied, the tone of an equally scolding wife. She clapped her hands and a rolled up canvas was placed in her hands.

"What's this?" The Doctor asked, and Amy caught hold of his excitement, his interest, and edged forward, standing partially behind him to look.

"A painting." River told him, stating the fairly obvious. "Your friend Vincent." The Doctor snatched the canvas from her hands and rolled it out on the table, Amy moving with him, always staying close to him, not quite touching him, centimetres away. River noticed, glancing at their body language, but said nothing. "One of his last. He had visions, didn't he? I thought you ought to know about this one."

"Doctor?" Amy asked, nervousness edging into her voice, trying to quell the worry and terror she felt rising in the pit of her stomach. The Doctor looked up to her, and a second after eye contact the feeling stopped, leaving only curiosity in its wake. "Doctor, what is this?"

They all looked down to the painting below, glorious beauty, rich colours, gold's and blues and immense passion, but the subject one of terror. The TARDIS, broken, doors flying off and bright light coming from within, spreading out into the rest of the picture and beyond.


	3. Chapter 3

_So, because writing the entire episode would be time consuming, and unnecessary, I'm skipping parts that I feel wont be needed in the story. I'll make sure to summarise every time I do so, so you wont all be left bewildered.

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_

**After examining the painting, Amy, Doctor and River rode out to Stone Henge, the Doctor having decided that the most logical place to begin looking for the Pandorica would be the famous landmark. They arrived at the stones at dusk, the sky a dull grey like the stones themselves. Soon enough the Doctor jumped to the conclusion that something was beneath the site, and they set to work on getting below.**

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**

"We need to get down there." The Doctor said, with his ear pressed to the rock he had previously been standing on. He glanced up at River and Amy.

"There's a down there?" Amy asked incredulously, but with excitement. "The Pandorica is down there?"

"Might be." The Doctor said, leaping up, "Why not?" he shrugged.

"It could work..." Mused River. "But we'd need something to get down there: the screwdriver?" She suggested.

The Doctor scanned again to make sure, but quickly shook his head. "No, it's locked by something specific, and we don't have the key."

"What's the key?" Amy asked, glancing round and walking towards the Doctor.

"Don't know," He told her as he thought. "We don't know who put it there, so we don't even know what we're looking for!"

"Great," Said Amy. "Now what?"

River was looking at the ground with a smirk, scuffing her boot at the dirt. Amy noticed and watched warily, while the Doctor looked obliviously up at the sky. "How about this?" River called, drawing his attention. He walked over and knelt down, carefully brushing the dirt from it and easing it out of the moist English soil.

"That'll do nicely." He said, shooting back up and examining it, holding it up in the dull light.

"What is it?" Amy asked, walking over.

"A key, of sorts," River told her. "It will open almost any door you come across. Very illegal, of course." She winked at Amy.

"So we can get in?" Amy asked. "What are we waiting for?"

"It's damaged," The Doctor told her. "I just need to fix it." He walked back to the stone and sat on it, pulling out his screwdriver.

Amy stood awkwardly, unsure of what to do. She didn't know how to act around River, now that she and the Doctor were a couple. Should she act like she wanted, should she sit with the Doctor as he worked, be his girlfriend? Or should she pretend like nothing was happening? River was the Doctor's future, and while in the past it hadn't bothered her, now it did; it really did. Amy had guessed last time that they had met that River was the Doctors wife in the future, and River had never confirmed it, but she never denied it either.

She felt a twinge of jealousy in her belly. Amy knew that they couldn't last forever, that their relationship was doomed one way or another... but seeing the future, seeing her possible replacement; that stung.

The Doctor looked up, feeling the spark of jealousy, the twinge of sadness that was coming from Amy. He needed to be more careful, needed to keep his walls up until he got round to explaining this all to her. Amy was picking up his feelings again, his worries about River, and expanding them, amplifying them with her own concerns. His carelessness was hurting her.

"Amy?" He called as he put up his walls. "Come here, I need you to hold this."

"Okay." She said, sitting down next to him and holding the equipment. It was a completely unnecessary job, but the Doctor wanted her to be doing something, just to keep her mind distracted. Plus, the added benefit of the close proximity to her was an attraction in itself. He continued to sonic they key, healing the deteriorated circuits within as River scanned the site.

"There's something I don't understand," Amy said, and the Doctor glanced up at her. "Why was the key just lying on the ground? They locked whatever's down there up for a reason, why would they just leave a key lying around?"

The Doctor looked up to River, who was listening.

"I don't know yet." Said the Doctor.

"Maybe someone wants us down there?" River suggested. "Are we walking into a trap?"

"But they just left it in the ground, anyone could've found it." Amy said.

"But not everyone can use it." Explained the Doctor. "It's not just any old key that you'd stick under a plant pot to remember where you put it. It needed to be fixed first."

"So it's a trap?" Asked Amy.

"Probably." The Doctor concluded.

"You're right, there's definitely something under there." River informed them. "I'm picking up readings that definitely don't belong in this time, or on Earth."

"Like what?" The Doctor asked, focusing on the key.

"I'm not sure. This whole area is filled with leftover residue, to start with, and there's something big down there." She glanced up, looking at the two of them with a knowing smile. "And, of course, there's the two of you."

Amy and the Doctor looked up in surprise as River smirked, and looked at each other guiltily, expressions eerily similar.

"I don't know what you mean." The Doctor said carefully.

"Oh, you can stop pretending," She told them. "I know all about it, I just didn't know it started this early for the two of you."

"So we keep going?" Amy asked, intrigued. The Doctor clamped down on his emotions again; Amy kept picking up on things that were trickling out.

River laughed. "Spoilers."

"But we do, though," Amy said happily. "If she knows-"

"Amy..." The Doctor interrupted, and she rolled her eyes. The Doctor was happy too, of course he was, but he couldn't bring himself to raise his hopes like that. River was a stark reminder that he didn't have Amy for ever; he didn't want to think about the future just yet.

The device chirruped and lit up - bright against the now dark sky - in Amy's hands, surprising them all. It was ready.

"Right!" The Doctor cried, leaping up and snatching it from her. "It's time we went downstairs."

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_I like to think this was a deleted scene, as there's a gap of atleast half an hour in the episode: Where did the unlocky thing come from, and why did they wait till it was dark?_

_Writing a chapter every day: Going well.  
Reading books in time for lectures: Not so well._

_[This is a reupload, if you're wondering, I forgot to hit save and put up the fully finished version. There's not much more to it, just a bit more dialogue]  
_


	4. Chapter 4

**The Doctor, Amy and River used the key to open the henge, the rock that the Doctor had previously been standing on now sliding open like an automatic door; an invention that would not be around for centuries. They made their way carefully down the steep steps, finding themselves underground. The Doctor called the place the Underhenge.**

**The Doctor lit a wooden torch with his screwdriver, and lit the one that River had found, despite having her own, more modern torch. With an anticipatory smile to Amy, who grinned back, albeit nervously, they flung open the large wooden doors they found in front of them, and walked into the chamber.**

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**The first thing that the Doctor noticed about the room was not a pleasing sight. On the floor, not far from where they had entered, was a single arm; silver and bulky in appearance, with broken wires protruding from where the limb would have met the shoulder; a Cyber arm. He grimaced and looked away, not mentioning it to Amy and River.

Walking into the room, he found his attention rather more attracted now to the large stone cube in the centre of the room. It had a large spiralling design carved into it, and stood dusty, yet ultimately grand and terrifying in a room filled with cobwebs. He put his hand on it when he had come close enough, carefully placing his torch on the floor.

"Is that it?" Amy asked, walking up behind him and taking his free hand. "The Pandorica?"

The Doctor nodded, glancing at her with a smile before looking back at it. "There was a goblin, or a trickster," He told her. "Or a warrior; a nameless, terrible thing, soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies. The most feared being in all the cosmos." He stroked the box with his free hand, tracing the embossing. "And nothing could stop it, or hold it, or reason with it; one day it would just drop out of the sky and tear down your world."

"How did it end up in there?" Amy asked, looking at the box, and the Doctor smiled at her, feeling her curiosity, her passion. He took his hand from the box and placed it on her cheek instead.

"You know fairytales..." He told her. "A good wizard tricked it."

River walked past them, her presence intruding on their moment. "I hate good wizards in fairytales," She told Amy as she thrust the torch at her, forcing her to step back from the Doctor for fear of burning him. "They always turn out to be him."

The Doctor stepped away from Amy, examining the box's sides as Amy used the torch to look round the room, the light breathing life into the far corners. "So, it's kinda like Pandora's Box, then?" She asked. "Almost the same name."

"Sorry, what?" The Doctor asked, stepping out from the other side and slotting his torch into a hole in a wall.

"Pandora's box, with all the worst things in the world in it," She told him tauntingly, relishing in knowing something he didn't. She walked dramatically over, stopping centimetres before him. "That was my favourite book as a kid."

The Doctor swallowed, her teasing behaviour and close proximity making it difficult for him to stay focused. It took him a few seconds, but he eventually regained his train of thought, blinking and studying her eyes closely, in a way that most people found intrusive; Amy, however, rather liked it.

"Your favourite topic at school, your favourite story..." The Doctor pondered, trying to ignore the basic instinct to pull her closer to him. "Never ignore a coincidence..." Amy raised her eyebrows, wondering where this was going. "Unless you're busy, in which case always ignore a coincidence."

He walked away, and Amy rolled her eyes.

"So, can you open it?" River asked, choosing, once again, to ignore their couply moments.

"Easily," He told her. "Anyone could break _into_ a prison, but I'd rather know what I'm gonna find first."

"You won't have long to wait," River told him, looking at her scanner as it chirped at her. "It's already opening. There are layers and layers of security protocols in there, and they're being disabled, one by one, like its being unlocked from the inside." She pressed her ear to the box, trying to hear something that the device would not.

"How long do we have?" He asked.

"Hours, at most."

"What kind of security?"

"Deadlocks, time-stops, Matalans..." She told him, listing only a few that she could see.

"What could need all that?" He whispered.

"What could get past all that?" River reiterated.

"Think of the fear that went into making this box," He said, scanning with his screwdriver. "What could inspire that level of fear?" He pressed both of his palms on the box, trying to look in, somehow. "Hello you... Have we met?"

He felt something gnawing in the corners of his brain, and he quickly looked round to Amy, seeing her standing at the far side of the room, feeling the chills that she felt running down her spine. He quickly strode over to her.

"Amy, what's wrong?" He said, carefully monitoring her emotions.

"I thought..." She begun, listening carefully to try and rehear what she had just heard; a metallic scraping. But she pushed it out of her mind, feeling suddenly uncomfortable, feeling spied on, observed. "What makes you think something's wrong?"

"No reason." He told her a little too quickly, and Amy looked over his shoulder, seeing River watching with a smile.

"You haven't told her yet, Doctor?" River asked, and the Doctor ground his teeth and turned round, glaring at her. "Oh... You haven't."

"Told me what?" Amy asked as the Doctor walked purposefully back over the Pandorica. "Told me WHAT, Doctor?"

The Doctor said nothing, unsure of how to phrase it, and Amy could feel his frustration – however, because she did not understand it, took it to be only her own. "River?" She asked, turning to her.

River opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by her device, and looked down to it with furrowed brows. "Doctor..."

"What?" He half yelled, trying to remain calm.

"There's something out there." She told him, trying to read what was showing up on the screen. The Doctor's face suddenly turned solemn, and Amy felt the mood suddenly shift. She could see, could _feel_ him thinking, and once more she felt the mood change, to suppressed terror.

"Oh." He said. He quickly brought out his sonic screwdriver, aiming it at the large stone pillars that stretched from the floor to the ceiling. "The stones, these stones are great big transmitters broadcasting a warning to everyone, everywhere, to every time zone; the Pandorica is opening."

"That's how Van Gogh knew." Amy realised.

"Everyone, Doctor?" River asked.

"In his dreams..." He pondered, feeling sorry for the old painter.

"Doctor? Everyone, everywhere?"

"Anything that powerful, I'd know about it; why don't I know?" He paced around as he spoke, mulling it over.

"Doctor!" River called, claiming his attention. "You said everyone could hear it... so who else is coming?"

"Oh." He said again, beginning to realise the full extent of the situation. River pressed her device on one of the pillars.

"Oh? _Oh_ what?" Amy demanded.

"Okay," River breathed. "If it is basically a transmitter we should be able to fold back the signal."

"Doing it!" The Doctor cried, turning on the screwdriver.

"Doing what?" Amy yelled, infuriated.

"Stone Henge is transmitting, it's been transmitting for a while; so who heard?" River explained.

"Okay, should be feeding back to you now." The Doctor said. "River, what's out there, getting anything?"

"Give me a moment." She told him.

"Quickly, River!" He warned.

River's face fell as she read the figures. "Around this planet there are at least ten thousand star ships."

"At least?" Amy questioned.

"Ten thousand, a hundred thousand, a million! I don't know! There are too many readings!" She told her.

"What kind of star ships?" The Doctor asked, though was quickly interrupted by a noise from outside – a voice, a screeching, crackling, venomous voice.

"Daleks. Those are Daleks." Amy said, her throat closing up in fear.

The Doctor stood still for a few seconds, panicking, frozen, and Amy stood too, frozen in fear – frozen in fear, and confused. She had met the Daleks before, and while they were terrifying creatures, she didn't know she feared them this much; she had seen the Doctor fight them, she had seen the Doctor beat them with a hammer; she had more faith in the Doctor than fear in the Daleks. She concentrated, using her smart, TARDIS filled brain and focused, pulling at the fear, realising that this terror was not quite her own, but had more to do with the frozen Time Lord, her lover, in front of her. Feeling Amy's tugging, feeling her bravery, he snapped out of it.

"Okay, okay," He said, starting to pace back and forth. "Dalek fleet, minimum twelve thousand battle ships, armed to the teeth-ahhhh!" He said, throwing the screwdriver between his hands as he thought. "But we've got surprise on our hands; they'll never expect three people to attack twelve thousand Dalek battle ships, because we'd be killed instantly." He reeled off, thinking aloud, trying to ignore Amy's presence in his mind. "So it would be a fairly short surprise – forget surprise." He hit himself on the head with the screwdriver.

"Doctor..." Amy said, empathising, desperate to help, only to be distracted by more voices.

"Cyberships." River read out.

"No, Dalek ships, listen to them." He told them. "Those are Dalek ships."

"Yes, Dalek ships and Cyberships!"

"Well, we need to start a firefight, turn them on each other, that's easy, they're the Daleks, they're so cross!" He said.

"Sontarin, two battle fleets." River informed them.

"Sontarin's, talk about cross, who stole all their handbags?" He said crazily, panicking, no longer bothering to listen to River's ever continuing list of aliens that were waiting for them, for the Pandorica. He backed up, walking backwards to the Pandorica, only to walk into Amy.

"Doctor." She said, grabbing his hands for support, support for both of them.

"I know." He said, feeling her fear, feeling his, intermingling. They moved together into a tight embrace, and he was glad of it; he could feel her attempts to remain calm, to keep it together; he could feel it working for him too. After a couple of seconds he pulled back and took her face in both of his hands, bringing their lips together in a kiss; a kiss filled with passion and fear, a kiss filled with the possibility of having only moments left together.

They pulled away from each other when they heard a grinding clunk behind them, stone on stone, coming from within the Pandorica.

"Who are you?" The Doctor asked the anonymous box. "What could you possibly be?"

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_I'm sorry about the delay, I've been really busy with my uni work, and social thingies, that I've been neglecting this a little bit - so you get an extra long chapter to make up for it. I might try and begin writing another chapter tonight, or I might go to bed, considering I have a 9.30 lecture tomorrow._

_Love you all, thank you for the beautiful reviews I'm still continuing to get even though I've been horrible and not updated._

_LAVELAVELAVE XXX_


	5. Chapter 5

**After going above ground to see the ships, the Doctor sent River to get reinforcements in the form of Romans. After some fairly intense convincing, she plans a return with a Centurion and his men. The Doctor and Amy go back down to the safety of the Underhenge.**

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**Amy lit more torches from the one she had dropped to the floor earlier while the Doctor studied the Pandorica, trying to make sense of the engravings.

"So what's this got to do with the TARDIS?" She asked carefully, paying complete attention to what the Doctor was doing and saying, knowing that something was wrong, something that the Doctor wasn't telling her.

"Nothing," He replied, too intent on deciphering the mystery to pay attention to his suspicious girlfriend. "As far as I know."

"But Vincent's painting," She said as she placed her torch into a slot in the wall. "The TARDIS was exploding, is that going to happen?"

"One problem at a time." He told her stubbornly, not looking at her, but instead pulling out a device, similar to Rivers, and scanning it. "There's force field technology inside this box, if I can enhance the signal I can extend it all over Stone Henge, I can buy us half an hour."

"What good is half an hour?" She asked, frustrated.

"There are fruit flies that live on Hoppingdon-Six; they live for twenty minutes, and they don't even mate for life," He told her, prodding the box with what looked with a stethoscope. He looked up to her, slightly lost in his thoughts. "There's gonna be a point to that, I'll get back to you."

Amy watched him working, and weighed up her options. She needed to talk to him about what was happening, what River had insinuated about earlier, but the Doctor clearly didn't want to tell her yet – a judgement she usually trusted. However, this clearly affected her, this was different.

She needed to find out, and now was probably the best time to do so. River wasn't there, wouldn't be for a while, and they could all be dead in half an hour anyway. Granted, the dead in half an hour scenario wasn't one she was unfamiliar with, but that didn't make the point any less true.

"What's going on, Doctor?" She asked, leaning against the side of the Pandorica.

"I'm enhancing the force field." He told her.

"Not that." She said, and he glanced up, finally paying attention to her mood. "What aren't you telling me?" The Doctor guiltily went back to his work and Amy sighed in annoyance, kneeling down so she was on his level. "River knows what it is, why don't I get to?"

The Doctor looked back to her, guilty, and a little bit afraid. He knew he had to tell Amy this, he had to explain the connection between them, but it was going to be hard; she was not going to take it well. He concentrated on being calm, in the hopes that it would make this conversation run smoother.

"You asked me how I knew that something was wrong." He begun, and Amy nodded. "I knew something was wrong because I could _feel _it."

"You heard it too?" Amy asked, remembering the metallic scraping she had heard.

"No," The Doctor said, frustrated. "I felt you worry."

"What does that mean?" Amy asked, and the Doctor felt suspicion begin to creep in again. He put down his screwdriver and stood up, pacing a little bit to try and get the words straight in his head. When he turned round, Amy was standing too, waiting.

"When a Time Lord..." He waved his hands in the air, finding himself somehow unable to say the word. "...does what we did, they form a connection."

"A connection?" Amy asked, confused.

"Yes." He told her. "So when we..."

"When we slept together?" She finished for him, impatient at his shyness.

"Yes, when we did _that_, we..." He waved his hands some more, gesturing to her and back to him repeatedly, trying to explain. "...formed a connection."

"What sort of connection?" Amy asked, finding herself getting annoyed, though somehow remaining calm.

"A kind of complicated, big, psychic one." He finished.

"A psychic connection?" She repeated, her alarm crashing through the calm that had been there. "You put something inside my head?"

"Not intentionally," He told her, stepping back a bit, closing down his walls for fear of her emotions spilling into his – it wouldn't do for them to both get angry. "I couldn't really stop it!"

"You put something in my head, and didn't tell me? You didn't warn me?" She yelled, her Scottish fury striking fear into the Doctor.

"Well you weren't exactly receptive to my reasons for not doing... that!" He told her, his voice high pitched and panicky.

Amy stared at him, her mouth agape for a few seconds. "So you just didn't tell me?"

"By the time I remembered, it was too late," He told her. "And, you know... it was nice."

"_NICE_?" Amy repeated.

"You were so happy!" He told her, trying to reason with the crazed Scottish girl. She misunderstood.

"Are you telling me that the only reason I was so happy was because of your weird Time Lord thing?" She told him, attempting to regain some semblance of calm.

"No!" He told her, taking a tentative step towards her, and hesitantly taking her hand. "No. I could _feel_ you were happy."

Amy replied with a stare, understanding beginning to dawn on her. "What?"

"It's empathic, this link," He explained carefully, monitoring her closely. "I can feel what you feel, and you can feel what I feel."

"I can feel you?" She asked, her voice quiet in wonderment.

"If you pay attention." He told her.

"I could feel you earlier, couldn't I?" She asked. "When we heard the Daleks, I could feel you. You were afraid."

"Yes." He said solemnly. He didn't want to think about the Daleks right now, not when he had much nicer things to think about, so much closer.

"And right now? Can I feel you now?"

"If you try." He told her with a grin.

She focused, unsure of where to start, how to start. Earlier it had seemed so easy to follow the flooding emotions, to trace them back to him, but right now it was difficult; there wasn't anything so obvious to follow. But she tried; she searched her brain, looking for anything that didn't feel like her, something that didn't belong to her.

"You..." She said as she found it. "You're scared? Why are you scared?"

"You were yelling." He told her bashfully.

"You get scared when I yell?" She asked, now smiling as he blushed slightly.

"You know what they say about gingers," He joked. "Hell of a temper."

"Oy!" She hit him on the arm.

"Sorry." He laughed, squeezing her hand before releasing it and beginning to go back to the Pandorica, until he felt something more coming from Amy; worry. "What's wrong?" He asked again, and she looked back to him, her eyes a little sad, a little scared.

"You said you felt happy because I was happy." She reminded him. "And you didn't want to start this in the first place."He waited patiently for her to continue, and she took a deep breath, steadying herself for what she was about to ask. "Do you really want to be doing this? Or is it just me?"

He could feel her nervousness, her fear, the sadness behind the question. Taking both of her hands in his; he brought her close to him, and answered her question with a kiss, and so much more than a kiss. He allowed his own happiness, his delight in her trickle through, and when they separated she was smiling widely.

"Wow." She said, an understatement.

"Yeah." He replied with a grin. Amy pulled herself closer.

"Can you tell what I'm thinking right now, Doctor?" She asked coyly, tilting her head and raising an eyebrow.

"No," He tried to explain. "It's empathic, not telepathic."

"No..." She said, pulling him closer and backing him against the Pandorica. "_Can you tell what I'm thinking_?" She pressed her lips to his, kissing him fiercely, until they had to break for breath.

"Now's probably not a good time." He told her, though not attempting to get away.

"Probably not..." She teased, still holding herself close.

As Amy moved in to kiss him again, millimetres from his lips, she heard something, and saw a red light flash, and jerked back to see something shoot into the wall next to them.

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_I forgot to mention, Chapter 3 was reuploaded because I accidentally published the first draft, not the final. You might want to go back and check :)_


	6. Chapter 6

**The Doctor and Amy, having sheltered from the firing briefly behind the Pandorica, quickly discovered that what was shooting at them was the dismembered arm of a Cyberarm. Using Amy to draw its attention, the Doctor quickly pounced on it and used the screwdriver to disarm it. **

**

* * *

**

Amy stepped from round the Pandorica to see the Doctor lying on the floor, almost cradling the arm as he sonicked it. It was a strange sight, like he was cradling a baby, and the screwdriver was singing a soothing lullaby.

"Doctor?" She asked, taking another step forward.

He jumped up, shaking the arm quickly. "Look, it's armless!" He said with a smile, trying to bring some humour in the situation. Amy was unconvinced and took another step forward. "Stay where you are, it could be bluffing." He instructed, still sonicking it.

"Bluffing? It's an arm!" She reminded him, still walking towards him.

"I said STAY WHERE YOU ARE!" He yelled, gesturing at her to go back, which she reluctantly did. "Armless; I've made that joke before, haven't I?" Amy shrugged, sulking slightly. "Sorry." He told her, still concentrating on the arm.

Amy watched as he worked, considering how much easier it had been to be his girlfriend when they were tucked away in Space Florida, but knew she wouldn't trade it back. A holiday was nice, but nothing beat the thrill of their adventures.

Amy's thoughts were interrupted as she heard it again, the cold, metallic scraping, metal against stone. It was different this time, though; she could hear more; beeping and electronic chirping. She looked around, trying to pinpoint where it was coming from, and quickly located it when she felt something tugging at her ankle, wrapping around it.

"Doctor?" She called as she looked down, to see wires wrapping round her boot.

"Amy!" He yelled back as he saw her being tugged to the floor. Amy landed with a thump, and felt herself being pulled backwards by her ankle, whatever having a hold on her being strong. The Doctor, as he began to rush over to help, was quickly stopped by what looked like a huge electric shock coming from the arm he was still holding.

"Doctor!" She yelled as he fell, unconscious before he hit the floor. She panicked for a second, before pulling herself together, knowing that giving in to her instinct to panic would most likely end up with them both getting killed.

Still feeling the wires pulling her backwards, she rolled from her stomach and onto her back. Now able to sit up, she could finally see what was on her leg; a head, a metal head. She assumed it belonged to the same body as the arm that had shocked the Doctor, and was cleverly picking them off. _'Don't panic!'_ She reminded herself, and ducked with a shriek as more wires reached towards her, shooting sparks at her, while the head shuffled over.

The wires managed to work their way round her wrists, trapping her more securely and the head moved faster than ever. Flight now definitely not an option, she fought instead, grabbing the metal head with both hands, able to keep it at arm's length. She stood up, steadying herself, and tried to examine the head, but found herself more focused on what it was doing. A bright line was working itself down the metal casing, like it was being lit up and sawn through from the inside. She winced in anticipation of what was about to happen, knowing it wasn't going to be good.

She was right. The line split, and the face was flung open, revealing what was inside; unmistakeably a skull. The previous body that the Cyberman had used was long dead. Spitting out the skull, narrowly missing Amy, the helmet began to snap open and closed, trying to snatch her face. Amy guessed what it was after, a new head, a new body to use. It was getting closer to her, the wires pulling itself closer, and it was narrowly missing chopping her nose off.

Amy, scared and angry Amy, used the only option she saw available to her. Swinging the head round, she bashed it twice against one of the stone pillars of the Henge, bashing and bashing until it released her wrists and she flung it to the floor. She readied herself to fight it off again, but was surprised to see that it instead shuffled off, making high pitched keening noises as it shied away from her.

Proud, but still wary, she stepped away, retreating to the Doctor. He was lying on the floor, the arm at his side. "Doctor?" She called his name, shaking him, trying to wake him up. She placed two fingers on his neck, and was relieved to feel a pulse; ba-dum-ba-dum,ba-dum-ba-dum. She sighed in relief, a relief that was cut short by a sharp pain in her neck. Putting her hand up to sooth it, she felt something sharp sticking out of her skin, and pulled out a metal dart. She felt her vision cloud at the corners, and she looked blearily back to the head. It had been bluffing, biding its time to shoot at her.

"You will be assimilated." It spoke, a low, dull, robotic voice emanating from it.

"Yeah?" She replied, pride and fight showing through even in her woozy state. "You and who's body?"

She heard clunking footsteps coming, robotic, with a whirring before each thump. Looking up, she saw a headless, one armed metal body coming into the room, and it turned to face her, as best it could. It kept walking, heading straight for her, but stopped at the head. Picking it up, it fed the wires down its open neck hole, and screwed on the head before looking straight at her. Stretching one arm out, it reached for her, taking sturdy, if uneven, steps forward.

Amy grabbed a torch that had been stuck in the wall next to her and used it as a shield, keeping the fire between her and the Cyberman. She waved it in front of her, but her weapon proved useless; it carried on regardless, fearless of the flames.

By now she could barely see, her vision wavering and blurring, her sense of depth massacred. She kept stepping backwards, determined to fight it off until she could no longer, and felt herself back into something solid.

Solid, for a second, until it gave way behind her. She had managed to back herself against some doors, and she fell backwards through them, landing on her back on the other side. She scrambled back as the doors swung shut again, trapping herself in the dark room behind them, sealed off from the Cyberman.

"Doctor!" She called, praying that he was awake by now. There was no reply.

The doors rattled as the Cyberman tried to get through, and Amy struggled to stay awake. It would be so easy to just fall asleep, to collapse on the floor and let fate have its way with her, but she fought it. She had to stay alive, for the Doctor.

The doors stopped rattling, and she could hear nothing. Stepping forward, she pressed the side of her face against the door, listening carefully. "Doctor?" She called quietly.

She jumped back as something pierced the door inches away from her face. A long metal sword had been shoved through, but by the time she had managed to focus her bleary brain to realise this, the door swung open, and she saw the Cyberman pinned to the other side by the sword, the hilt of it pressed up to its chest.

She looked away, searching for the owner of the sword. She could see someone, not the Doctor. There was a Roman; she could tell by the armour and the head gear, but her eyesight was so blurry by this point that she could tell nothing more. Stepping forwards, she struggled to maintain her balance, blinking and squinting and forcing her eyes open to see the man. She had to see the man, she had to see who it was, but didn't know exactly why.

"Who..." She slurred, forcing the words out. "Who are you?"

"Hello Amy." He replied.

She finally gave in, collapsing, but not falling. The man grabbed her and picked her up, cradling her in his arms. If she had been awake, she would have been able to see him; at this close range she would have been able to see through the haze and work out who he was, even if it made no sense. As it was, he carried her over to a large stone, wide and flat enough to work as a table.

He brushed the hair from her face and smiled. He had found her; Rory was back.

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_I wasn't sure how much to cut, as the majority of this scene is pretty much the same as the episode, but it's a good action scene, so I felt like I had to keep it in; not to mention what happened at the end. I'd love to be able to write the whole episode, but I know that would take SO LONG and my patience for the episode would wear thin._

_Anyway, hope you're enjoying it. xx  
_


	7. Chapter 7

The Doctor woke up with a start. Ignoring the dull headache and the tired limbs, he sat up and quickly replayed what he could last remember in his head. Amy in danger, Amy fell down. He looked to the Pandorica where Amy had been standing, but saw no trace of her.

"Amy!" He called, still sitting on the ground. Forcing himself up, he jumped onto his feet and shook himself out like a dog, ready to spring into action.

He now noticed a Roman who had been lurking in the doorway, who gave him a curt nod before walking through the doors. The Doctor followed him, moderately cautiously, to another room. He ignored everything; the Cyberman pinned to the door, the Romans, all he saw was Amy's unconscious body laying on a stone slab.

"Amy!" He called again, this time scared.

"She's fine, Doctor, just unconscious." Said a Roman, but the Doctor ignored him. He ran up to Amy, sweeping a few strands of hair from her face. He leant down, pressing his forehead to her cheek. "Oh, Amy." He whispered to her. Straightening up he quickly checked her vitals with the sonic screwdriver. "She's sedated, that's all. Half an hour, she'll be fine." He squeezed his eyes shut and leant down again, placing a kiss on her forehead. "I'm sorry."

"HEY!" Yelled one of the Romans, but again the Doctor ignored him, so focused on Amy that he cared of little else. He allowed himself a few seconds of this, pretending to himself that they were back on the TARDIS, laying in bed together, watching her as she slept, rather than in mortal danger, before he forced himself back into action, and turned his back on her.

"Okay, Romans!" He said, patting each of them on the arm. "I was just wishing for Romans. Good old River, how many?" He asked, walking over to examine the Cyberman in the door.

"Fifty men up top, volunteers." Said the Centurion in charge. "What about that thing?"

"Fifty? Not exactly a legion." He replied scornfully.

"Your friend was very persuasive, but it's a tough sell." The Centurion informed him.

"Yes, I know that Rory, I'm not exactly one to miss the obvious, but we need everything we can get." The Doctor said, with so much swagger in his tone that anyone who understood the situation would have laughed.

"Wh-" Rory tried to speak, but the Doctor interrupted him rudely. He didn't mean to be rude, but right now something was bothering him. He could feel it, something was wrong with the situation, and he couldn't see what. Maybe it was Amy; he glanced over, searching to see what she was feeling, and indeed he could feel something there, but couldn't quite pinpoint what. Not that he had time for this anyway; he was very busy right now.

He picked up two large guns that were slotted into the wall. "Cyber-weapons. This is basically a sentry box, this one here was a sentry, probably got himself duffed up by the locals; never underestimate a Celt."

"Doctor!" Rory tried to say, but the Doctor cut him off again.

"Hush, Rory, thinking." He didn't look at the man, but continued to speak. "Why leave a Cyberman on guard unless it's a Cyberthing in the box? But why would they lock up one of their own?" He shook his head. "Okay, not a Cyberthing, but what?" He walked over to Rory, inches from his face. "No... Missing something obvious, Rory, something big, something right slap in front of me, I can feel it."

"Yeah, I think you probably are." Rory said with a roll of the eyes. The Doctor would get there eventually, he knew, and clearly he wasn't in the right state of mind to listen.

"I'll get it in a minute." He said as he walked away round the corner. He kept thinking as he walked, brain ticking away at a thousand miles a minute, telling him so many things at once that he couldn't possibly take it all in.

'_Cybermen but not a Cyberthing, that was telling everyone all across the universe and all across time that it was getting out, and even poor old Vincent heard it. Whatever is happening is big, shooting all across the universe, telling everyone, everywhere. Does this have anything to do with the TARDIS exploding? Is the TARDIS in there – a future TARDIS? Vincent's painting showed the TARDIS exploding, and on the sign on the door were the coordinates to come here; the sign of the door that he found in the crack, big, bad, nasty crack, scaring poor little Amelia Pond. Getting hungry – how long till fish fingers are invented? Wonder what the crack is, something big enough to break the universe, sucking things in, pulling them from space and time, The Angels, Amy's Rory. Poor Amy, it had hurt her so much when Rory had died, even if she hadn't remembered it AND THERE'S THAT BAD FEELING AGAIN! Was it that Amy was hurt? But she would be fine, Rory had said so and __**oh the Gods Rasilon.**__'_

The Doctor dropped the guns with a clatter and froze, before quickly turning round and walking back into the room. He looked, properly looked, looked past his Amy asleep on the table and to the Centurion waiting near her. Rory looked back at him patiently. The Doctor slowly approached, disbelief and curiosity forcing him forward until he was right in front of him. He cautiously extended his hand, and poked him in the chest. He was solid enough. Rory swayed back with the force of the Doctor's prod.

"Hello again." The Doctor greeted as soon as he had found his voice. This made no sense.

"Hello." Rory replied, a little nervously.

"How've you been?" He asked the Roman, not sure what to say.

"Good," Rory shrugged. "I mean, Roman."

"Rory," The Doctor interrupted, unable to ingest the situation. "I'm not trying to be rude, but you died."

"Yeah, I know, I was there." Rory replied lightly.

"You died, and then you were erased from time; you didn't just die, you were never born at all!" The Doctor could feel himself starting to panic; this wasn't right, this couldn't happen, couldn't possibly happen, it wasn't possible. Just the opposite, this was _im_possible. "You never existed!"

"Erased? What does that mean?" Rory asked indignantly, so human in his ways.

The Doctor raised his hands and gestured to him, shock very evident on his face. He couldn't express how weird this situation was. He couldn't, there was no way to express how wrong this was, how impossible! "How can you be here?"

"I don't know!" Replied Rory. "It's kind of fuzzy." He told him stepping away and rubbing his head.

"Fuzzy." The Doctor replied thoughtfully, no idea why that word was sticking out.

"Well, I died and turned into a Roman; it's very distracting." Rory turned to face Amy, and gently caressed her arm with his hand. He looked at her with such tender care, such sadness, that the Doctor felt a sudden rush of immense guilt. Rory had died, and within a couple of months the Doctor had taken his fiancé. This situation had been unforeseeable, Rory's return unpredictable, but now that he was back, this could change everything. Amy had made her choice when only one option had been left to her; what would she do now? The guilt turned to sadness, and he stepped round Rory so he could see Amy.

"She's crying." Rory noticed, wiping a glistening tear from her cheek. The Doctor slammed down his walls. There was no need for Amy to feel this; he would not inflict his emotions on her. "Did she miss me?" Rory asked.

The Doctor looked back to Rory, feeling a nasty glare of jealousy spark within him. Rory had a very real chance of taking back the woman that he loved, snatching the Doctor's happiness away. Once before, so long ago, Amy had been forced to choose between them, and she had chosen Rory. She would be forced to choose again now, and there was no telling what she would do. And now it was Rory who was standing over her, his hands on her body, a caring caress.

The Doctor suppressed the urge to tear Rory away from her. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. It would be so easy, to tell him to not touch her for fear of hurting her. But the Doctor was kind, kinder than he had been in the past, and let the human hold the love of his life. When Amy woke up, things would be different, and not necessarily for the better.

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_I swear you don't realise how much the Doctor talks until you have to write down everything he says!_


	8. Chapter 8

**The Doctor and Rory's conversation was put on hold as they heard ships roaring above, and were forced to leave Amy to sleep. The Doctor noticed the Pandorica begin to light up, a luminescent green showing through the design carved into the box but had little time to examine it, instead being forced above ground to see what the ships in the sky were doing. **

**The Doctor, somewhat drunk on adrenaline, stood on the henge and spoke to the ships, delivering a fearfully intimidating speech to them and forced them back. Rory and the Doctor went back downstairs to the Pandorica alone.**

**River began to pilot the TARDIS back from the Roman camp to the Henge, but noticed the ship was behaving strangely.**

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**"They're still out there, what do we do?" Asked Rory.

"If I can stop whatever's in this box getting out, then they'll all go home." The Doctor told him.

"Right."

The Doctor could feel Amy, she was waking up, quite quickly; he could feel her coming. He opened his mouth to warn Rory, but knew not what to say. What was there to say?

Amy staggered into the room, her steps dazed and sleepy and her eyesight still blurry round the edges. She saw the Roman in the room, but she walked straight past him, not bothering to look at his face, and stepped up to the Doctor.

"Mmmm..." She whinged. "My head."

"Say '_Ahhh_'." The Doctor instructed her, and she did, allowing him to hold her head steadily as she did so. "Just your basic knock out drops, you'll be fine."

"Good." She said grumpily, drooping into his arms and snuggling into his chest. The Doctor didn't hug her back, instead looked guiltily over her head to Rory. He could see the hurt in his face, the uncertainty, the confusion over what the hell was happening. His chin dropped. "What's wrong?" Amy asked, feeling the Doctor's reluctance to hug her, and though not fully understanding the link between them both, could feel a general coldness coming from the Doctor.

Rory coughed, drawing her attention from behind, but she didn't turn, instead studying the Doctor's face for a few more seconds until he looked pointedly to the Roman standing behind her. She finally turned.

She blinked, straining the last of the bleary drugs from her eyes, unable to believe what she was seeing. She hadn't seen before, she hadn't seen when she had passed out, nor when she had walked past, who he was. His face, purely recognisable under all the Roman, was Rory.

"Oh my god..." She murmured, stumbling again and this time not completely from the drugs. She felt her knees give way slightly below her, and grabbed the Doctor's wrist for support. "You – you?" She stuttered.

"Hello, Amy." He said with a nervous smile. He hadn't expected this greeting; he'd expected more... hugging?

"But," She said, unable to take her eyes off of him even though she felt moisture pooling in them. "But you can't, you can't," She turned round to the Doctor, seeing his stony face. He could feel everything that she felt, but like her, he couldn't feel any dominant emotion past confusion. "He can't; how can he be here?"

"I'm right here." Rory reminded her, indignantly reacting to her instinct to ask the Doctor.

She turned back to him, staying still for a few seconds before letting go of the Doctor's wrist and stepping cautiously over to Rory. He stood still, patiently waiting for her to make it over to him. She took each step slowly, uncertainly, over to him, afraid to even make sudden movements for fear he might disappear from sight.

"How are you here?" She whispered as she finally reached him, placing a shaky hand tentatively on his chest.

"I don't know." He told her truthfully, also in whispers.

Amy's other hand reached Rory, placing it on his shoulder and then moving it up to his face. The hand on the armour patted him hesitantly, testing to see if he was solid, before also moving it up to his face, feeling his skin under hers. Quickly, she pulled him into a hug, gripping him tightly, afraid he might suddenly vanish.

"Rory." She whimpered, and she felt him place his arms around her, hugging her tightly back. She started crying, sobbing onto his shoulder; tears of joy and relief. Her best friend wasn't dead. He was here, he was right in front of her, and he was _somehow_ real.

"Amy." He breathed into her hair, nuzzling slightly. He looked over her head to glance at the Doctor. His stony expression was cold and frightening, but he quickly looked away, pretending to examine the Pandorica.

"Amy, you should get some fresh air." The Doctor instructed as he prodded the Pandorica with perhaps a bit too much force. "Rory, take her."

Rory understood and nodded, beginning to lead her up the stairs. The Doctor, despite his clear yet incomprehensible (to Rory) distaste of the situation, was giving them time alone to talk.

Amy looked round to the Doctor, peeling herself away from the Roman but still hanging on to his hand. She understood what he was doing; he was being noble, he was stepping away so that Rory could reclaim her. The Doctor always put others first, he was kind above all else. She didn't know how to react to this, she didn't know what to do, whether to stay down here with the Doctor or to talk to Rory.

She tried to feel for the Doctor, to find his emotions, but drew a blank. She couldn't feel him, it was like it had been before the link had been created, and it felt _strange_; like a limb had been chopped off, but she couldn't feel the pain yet.

Letting go of Rory's wrist, she moved back towards the Doctor, still trying to feel him. Something was definitely wrong with the Doctor, but she could see him refusing to show what. He was working on the Pandorica, scanning with his screwdriver; Amy couldn't tell if he was actually working or just pretending to. She knew one thing, though, even with the link closed; she could see the hurt in his face, the tightness of the jaw, even a shine of water in his eyes.

"Doctor?" Amy asked quietly, placing a hand on his arm. He jerked slightly underneath her, but didn't move away. He looked up at her, and she thought she might have felt him, just for a flicker of a second, before it snapped shut again.

"Just go talk to him, Amy." He told her quietly.

She stayed there a few seconds longer, momentarily forgetting Rory, focusing completely on the Doctor – just like the good old days. Eventually she let go of him and stood tall. She didn't know what was going to happen, how to behave or what to feel, but she was sure as hell going to figure it out. She turned her back on the Doctor, and walked up to Rory.

"Come on." She told him, and walked out of the room and outside.


	9. Chapter 9

**River is aboard the TARDIS, attempting to pilot it back from the Roman camp. River is an expert at flying the TARDIS, occasionally even outshining the Doctor with her skill in controlling the ship, but today she is having trouble. Refusing to bring her to the Henge, they instead land quite a distance in the future in Amy's front garden. **

**As River goes in the house to explore, the Doctor stays in the Underhenge, working on the Pandorica, while Rory and Amy go above ground to talk.**

**

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**Amy climbed the steps quickly, anxious to get into the fresh air. She sighed in relief as she felt the cool breeze caress her skin; delicious after staying so long in the stale air of the Underhenge. She turned round and looked back to Rory, who was stepping out with ease, despite his bulky armour.

Locating a more secluded spot, she walked over to a rock that was out of the way of all the Romans guarding the henge and sat down on it. She didn't look at Rory, instead gazed across the moors, thinking: thinking and procrastinating – she didn't know how to handle this.

"Amy?" Rory said, trying to claim her attention.

"I came here once before," She told him, reminiscing. "When I was younger. Didn't stop; just drove past on the way to the sea. In two thousand years, there's going to be a great big road over there."

"If the planet survives." Rory reminded her, quickly regretting his words. He needed to have faith in the Doctor, that he would save them from whatever would happen. They always needed to believe that, even if one day he couldn't. "Sorry."

Amy finally looked to him, looking at his armour. She laughed. "Do you remember that fancy dress party we went to? You went as a Roman."

"Yeah," He chuckled back, remembering the time. They had been happy.

"It was a good costume; looks exactly the same as what you're wearing now."

"Does it?" He looked at his armour, though unable to see much of it; the unyielding metal not allowing much movement. "That's something to be said for the shop; historical accuracy."

She laughed, and looked back out across the landscape. "It's weird remembering."

He stayed silent for a minute, digesting her words. "Did you try to forget me?" He asked, thinking he understood. Perhaps that would have been the easiest way to deal with his death; not thinking about it. It had only been a month.

She looked at him, trying to figure out how to phrase this. The words weren't coming easily; how was she meant to tell him what had happened when she didn't understand herself? How could she tell the man that was right in front of her that he didn't even exist?

"How could I ever forget you?" She asked herself, looking at the wonderful man in front of her; kind, brilliant Rory.

"Did it work?" He asked softly, sitting down beside her on the rock.

"Only for a while," She told him. "The Doctor had to remind me."

"Let's not talk about the Doctor." Rory said, bristling slightly at the mention. Amy looked surprised and raised an eyebrow, but he didn't go into his reasons, didn't explain to her how it angered him that the Doctor had Amy all to himself while Rory wasn't there, how he turned green with envy when the Doctor had kissed Amy as she slept, how he had comforted her when she woke. Right now, he wasn't too fond of the Doctor, but he suppressed it; the Doctor had brought Amy back to him.

"Right." She said.

"Did you miss me?" He asked abruptly, and he was mollified to see her face soften.

"So much." She told him, placing her hand over his. "I lost my best friend."

"You lost more than that." He told her with a smile, leaning in to kiss her; something he had been dreaming of since he had arrived. He missed the feel of her, her lips moving against his, the way she would always take charge; hold the back of his neck. He had imagined this kiss for so long.

It would have been so romantic.

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_Sorry about taking so long to upload - my workload is really piling up right now :(_

_Also, this chapter was SO HARD to write! Couldn't get it right for ages. I'll try and write more later._

_Love love xx  
_


	10. Chapter 10

**River has looked through Amy's house, noticing several things that weren't right. The first, and most obvious clue was the burnt marks on the grass outside – landing treads from an alien ship. It was when she went inside that she realised it was Amy's house; the childish drawings and card sculptures of the Doctor packed up in boxes, a few photo's scattered about. She sighed, mentally scolding the Doctor for what he had put Amy through. Looking closer, she noticed what was important.**

**

* * *

**Amy pulled away as Rory leant in to kiss her, pressing her lips together and looking back out across the moors so she wouldn't have to see the hurt in his face. She knew it was there, though, and she felt the guilt wash over her. She was going to have to hurt Rory so much more than he was hurting right now.

"What's wrong?" He asked her. "Did I do something wrong?"

She looked back to him, shuffling along the rock to put a bit more distance between them. "No," She told him. "You're perfect. You're my best friend."

He stiffened, analysing her words. "You keep saying that, that I'm your best friend."

"You are!" She told him, trying to smile, to soften what was to come.

"I'm your fiancé, Amy," He reminded her. "That doesn't change just because I died."

"Rory." She sighed, and looked to her hands that were gripping her knees.

"Does it?" He asked, struggling to understand. She turned back to look at him and he could see the struggle in her eyes. "What happened?" He asked, his voice cracking a bit.

"I.." She begun, but didn't know how to finish it. He could see her wringing her hands, something she only did when she was nervous.

"Is there someone else?" He asked, and he saw her expression flicker. She pressed her lips together again and nodded, tears beginning to spill from her eyes. "Who is it?"

"Rory," She tried to begin, but found herself unable to say it. She was so scared to hurt him.

"Is it the Doctor?" Rory demanded. "Is it?"

She forced herself to look Rory in the eyes and answer. He deserved that much. "Yes." She whispered.

He stood up abruptly, making Amy jump. He stared at her silently for a few seconds before he began pacing, running his hands through his hair.

"I'm sorry." She told him. "I didn't think-"

"You didn't think I was coming back?" He answered for her. She could hear the hurt, the anger in his voice. "No, I don't suppose you did."

Amy watched him, waiting for him to get over the initial shock. He stopped pacing, but didn't look at her. "I knew you wanted him."

"I know." She murmured back.

"How was I ever meant to compete with a man you've been chasing your whole life?" He asked, and Amy felt the guilt flush through her again. It wasn't fair to Rory, none of this had been. "He even managed to convince me that nothing was going to happen, that we were safe!"

"Rory..." She said again. She felt useless, she had no idea what to say to make this alright. She didn't think there was _anything_ she could say; she just let him rant.

"How long has it been?" He asked her, and she flinched.

"Not long." She told him.

"How long, Amy?" He repeated. He cut her off before she could answer. "How long after I died did this happen?"

"Not long." She said again, feeling terrible. It had really been very little time at all after Rory had died that this had all happened. But it had just felt so natural, the next step in their relationship.

"Right." He scoffed. "Great."

She finally stood up, walking over to him. "I still love you, Rory." She told him, and carried on speaking even though he looked away in disgust. "I do; you are my best friend!"

"That's all I ever was, wasn't I?" He asked. "That's why it took you so long to say yes, why you ran away the night before our wedding."

"I'm sorry." She told him, taking his hand. "I really am."

He pulled his hand away. "If the Doctor hadn't come back for you, Amy, would you have married me?"

She opened her mouth to answer, though she had no idea what, but they were interrupted by a high pitched noise, a mechanical alarm, summoning the Romans. She looked round, covering her ears against the shrill, watching them as the drooped, bending at the waist as if they were being reset. She looked back to Rory; he was doing the same.

* * *

The Doctor was in a bad mood; a contemplative, bad mood. Amy was outside with Rory, together, talking, reminiscing, and who knows what else. Amy could rediscover her love for him while the Doctor was in the Underhenge, working to save the world, again. He always had to do this, put the world first and everything else second.

But this time he was putting Rory first, giving him a chance. He could win back Amy, it was more than possible. Amy had made her choice when she thought that Rory was dead, vanished, removed from the universe forever. What would she choose now that he was back?

He felt the receiver in his pocket go off, and took it out, seeing River's name flash up on the screen. He answered.

"TARDIS, where is it? Hurry up." He told her rudely, not bothering to hide his bad mood. He expected to hear some sort of annoying comment back about his mood, his tone, but found himself surprised.

"Don't raise your voice, don't look alarmed, just listen." She told him calmly, although he could hear the tremor of fear in her voice. "They're not real, they can't be. They're all right here in a story book; those actual Romans." She tried to explain as she turned the pages. "The ones I sent you, the ones you're with right now! They're all in a book in Amy's house, a children's picture book."

"What are you even doing there?" He asked in annoyance, ignoring the important. He didn't want River to go meddling around in Amy's life.

"The TARDIS went wrong." She brushed it off. "Doctor, how is this possible?"

"Something's using her memories, Amy's memories." He said, pushing through his own problems. He needed to focus, no matter what was happening. It was just the Universes sick sense of humour that it revolved around her.

"But how?"

"You said something had been there?"

"Yes, there's burn marks on the grass outside, landing patterns."

"They've been to her house, they could've used the psychic residue; structures can use memories, that's why houses have ghosts." He grimaced, trying to work it all out. Something was very wrong, more so than he or River realised. "They could've taken a snapshot of Amy's memories, but why?"

"Doctor?" River asked. "Who are those Romans?"

"Projections, or..." He looked round at them working in the doorway. "Duplicates."

"But they were helping us!" She reminded him. "My lipstick even worked!"

"They might think they're real," He said in wonder. Sometimes, occasionally, the universe surprised him. "The perfect disguise; they actually believe their own cover story. Right until they're activated."

River flipped another page, and saw something slip. She caught it quickly and studied it, a photograph. "Doctor," She said. "That Centurion."

"What Centurion?" He asked desperately, hoping against hope that it wasn't who he thought it was.

"There's a picture of Amy with him in the book." She explained.

"Things get left behind, there's always a trace." He wondered aloud. "If there's a picture of him in the book..."

"Why would Amy have met him before?" River asked.

"He's from Amy's time; it's complicated." He told her. "How is he here?"

"It's a trap, it has to be!" River told him. "They used Amy to construct a scenario you'd believe, to get close to you!"

"Why?" He asked. "What for? Who'd do that? It doesn't make sense!" Despite River's earlier warnings he found himself raising his voice. He heard an explosion through the phone. "River? _River_? River, what's happening?"

"I don't know," She finally replied and he could hear the TARDIS thrumming in the background. "It's the engines. Doctor, there's something wrong with the TARDIS, like something else is controlling it."

"You're flying it wrong." He told her in annoyance. Any other time he might've gloated; he took pride in his perfected skill of flying the ship.

"I'm flying it perfectly," She told him indignantly. "You taught me."

"Where are you, what's the date reading?"

"Twenty sixth of June, 2010." She read out.

He froze, remembering. "You need to get out of there now, any other time zone, just go." He told her, keeping his voice even; trying not to scare her.

"I can't break free!"

"Well, then, shut down the TARDIS, shut down everything!" He told her, now yelling.

"I can't!" She yelled back above the roar of the engines. River stayed silent, and he heard something new in the background, a voice, though couldn't make it out. "Someone else is flying it, an external force; I've lost control."

"But how, why?" He asked. Suddenly he heard a high pitched noise, a screeching, and he winced. He was about to ask what was wrong, but quickly realised it wasn't coming from the TARDIS. This was on his end. He looked behind him and saw the soldiers freeze, before drooping; bending at the waist into a stiff, low bow. Then they straightened up, and he could hear whirring, like robots moving.

* * *

_AH! _

_Sorry this has taken so long, this chapter took me FOR EVER to do! I is excited :D  
_


	11. Chapter 11

"Rory?" Amy asked, looking at him, comparing him to the other Romans. "Rory, what are you doing?" She shook his shoulder, but he remained rigid, unmoving. "Rory?"

Suddenly he moved, straightening up as if uncoiling until he stood to attention, his chin high and his eyes wide, alert.

"Rory?" She said again, still shaking him. "Rory, stop it, _please _stop it!"

His face begun to twitch, beginning with his lip and spreading across the rest of his face. His chin was twitching too, like he was nodding minutely. She looked around; the rest of the Romans remained perfectly still.

* * *

"River, just land the TARDIS, anywhere. Force her if you have to."

Looking at the Roman's he realised something. If this was a trap for him, and all of the Roman's were part of it, then that meant _all_ of the Romans. Rory was Roman.

"I have to go." He told River, ending the call and dashing for the exit. Amy was up there, Amy wasn't safe.

He froze as he heard a thud behind him, and spared a look. The Pandorica was opening; he could see the edges peeling apart and a bright white light within. He could see nothing specific, just bright light. He looked at the Romans, seeing them all stood to attention, stiff and unmoving. He had time, a bit of it; Rory was presumably acting the same. He took out his sonic screwdriver and aimed it at the Pandorica, scanning it.

He didn't notice straight away that the Roman's moved, but when he did, he felt a sickening gnaw in his stomach. Their hands had split open at the knuckles, guns hidden within; all pointing at him.

"Oh." He said. He had waited too long. "_AMY!" _He yelled. He heard nothing in return, and tried taking a step back, up the stairs, to get to her, but found himself backing into something solid. Before he could turn to look, he felt arms secure him in place and march him forward. The Romans had caught him. "_AMY_!" He yelled again, but still heard nothing.

* * *

"I'm sorry, Rory." She said, stepping back a fraction as he twitched, before delivering a short, sharp slap to his face.

He gasped, snapping from his rigidity and recoiling as the rest of the Soldiers began to march away, down the moor. He doubled over, clutching his stomach in pain, in resistance.

"No!" He yelled to the skies. "I'm Rory!" He placed a hand over his ear, trying to block out the high pitched whistling that was still playing. Suddenly his face lit up in horror as he looked to Amy.

"Rory, what is it? What's happening?" She asked as she grabbed his hand. He pushed her away.

"Run, just run!" He yelled at her. "I'm a thing; I'll kill you! Just run!"

"No, Rory." She told him, her voice quivering but remaining strong. She wasn't going to leave him. "No you won't."

"Amy, please, _please_ just go!" He cried, squeezing his eyes shut as he tried to resist the orders blaring inside his head.

"I'm staying, Rory, I'm not leaving you." She told him firmly.

"Please, no," He whimpered to the sky. "I don't want to go!"

"Doctor!" She called desperately. He would know what to do. "Doctor!"

* * *

They kept marching him forward towards the Pandorica. He schemed as he let them take charge. "Plastic Romans, duplicates, driven by the Nestine Consciousness, 'ey?" He guessed. "Deep cover, but what for; what are you doing?"

He changed his focus, trying to concentrate. Despite his earlier decision, to leave Rory and Amy alone, to shut off the link as best he could, he knew he had no choice. Opening it as wide as he could, he felt for her, searching his brain.

She was scared. She was sad. But he felt a change as she felt him too, they felt hope.

"_Amy!"_

He tried yelling for her, trying to stretch the link as far as it would go. He'd never made this connection with a human before, but he knew from those that had, that in times of intense distress the empathic link could turn telepathic, thoughts could cross and they could hear each other. It was to allow them to say goodbye, in a time of no way out.

He would force this to happen, but it would _not_ be goodbye.

"_AMY!"_ He yelled again, screaming her name in his mind.

* * *

She suddenly felt something open, something click in her brain and she could _feel_, feel him, feel the Doctor. She felt his fear, his need, his desperation for her. She felt his hope, and she returned it; The Doctor came back to her.

"_Amy!" _She heard in her mind, her head flooding with him. _"Amy!"_

"_Doctor!"_ She returned in her mind.

"_Get out of here! It's not safe!"_ He told her, mimicking Rory's words. But she knew she couldn't; she couldn't go and leave her men behind.

She suddenly felt in snap, the connection, the voice. She could still feel him, but not as overwhelming; she could hear him no more.


	12. Chapter 12

"_Doctor?"_ He felt the words float across, dust in the wind, the breeze through a slightly open door.

"_GET OUT OF HERE!" _He yelled. _"It's not safe!"_

"The Pandorica is ready." Said one of the Romans, tripping his attention and he felt himself lose the link, leaving him with nothing but fear; Amy's fear and his, intermingling.

"What, you mean it's open?" He asked in fury. The anger quickly subsided, turning back into fear, fear that chilled him to the bone and sent shivers down his spine; his own fear, not Amy's.

"You have been scanned," He heard a voice say, and saw something move in the corners of the room. He didn't need to see it though. He would recognise the crackling voice anywhere. "Assessed, understood – Doctor."

He finally saw it, the white Dalek, the Supreme Dalek. The Drone and Scientist Daleks appeared next to it, transporting into the room. He struggled against the Romans that were restraining him, but they held firm.

"Scanned?" He asked. "Scanned by what, a box?"

"Your limits and capacities have been extrapolated." Said a different voice, mechanical and cold. Three Cybermen appeared in the room. Quickly, the room began to fill up, Jadoon, Sontarin, all transporting down.

"The Pandorica is ready." Announced one of the Sontarin's, repeating the Roman from earlier.

"Ready for what?" Asked the Doctor.

"Ready for you." The white Dalek told him with, if the Doctor wasn't mistaken, a certain amount of glee.

The light inside the Pandorica dimmed, and he finally saw within. They hadn't trapped anything inside there, instead it was prepared _to_ trap. Inside lay little more than a seat, with restraints that peeled back as he watched. He struggled again as they moved him forward, towards it, hoping what he was expecting wasn't what was going to happen.

* * *

"I'm Rory!" The Roman said to himself, forcing himself to remember, to override the instructions. "I'm – I'm-"

"You're Rory Williams." Amy told him, stepping close to him, looking him in the eyes. "Rory Williams from Leadworth, my best friend."

He watched her as she spoke, and though he was still flinching, the pain and struggle still in his eyes, she could see him calming, the battle fading.

"Amy, you've got to run." He whispered to her. "I can't hold on, I'm going."

"You are Rory Williams and you aren't going anywhere, ever again." She told him firmly. "Remember the party, huh?"

"The party?" He whimpered.

"Yeah, you dressed as a Roman, remember?" She told him. "Do you remember whose birthday it was?"

He panted, his breath coming short but she could see less of the pain in his eyes than had been there before. "My Mum."

"Yeah, remember your Mum?" She prompted him. "Your great Mum. Remember her?"

"Amy." He whispered, his voice cracking.

"Stay for your Mum; she'd want to see you again." She told him. "She'd love to hear your daft story about being a Roman." She looked at him, and could see the calm in his face. He was nearly back. Placing her hands on his face, she steadied him. "This is you, and you _are _staying."

She saw his face contort. "No!" He yelped, and Amy heard a robotic whirring.

She felt a sudden stabbing in her stomach, a shot. Rory had shot her.

* * *

Suddenly he felt a blistering pain strike his abdomen, and he doubled over in agony. It spread through his body and he yelled out in anguish, trying not to let it overwhelm him. _"AMY!" _He yelled again, both out loud and across their minds. She was in danger, she was dying; the link was breaking, splintering; he could feel it dying.

The inhabitants of the room watched his as he writhed, not understanding. He couldn't see them all now, his attention not in the room. He couldn't see the new aliens that arrived, the Silurians, Adherents of the Repeated Meme, The Hoix. He didn't see them watch him calmly as he cried in pain and in horror. They strapped him in to the Pandorica as he feebly fought, as he forced himself to be in control; to stop showing weakness. He panted and gritted his teeth through the pain, and blinked his eyes to clear the tears, unable to use his strapped down hands.

The crowd drew in, anxious to see their old enemy in pain, trapped, useless.

* * *

Amy clutched Rory, struggling to remain upright. She needed to hang on; she needed the Doctor.

"No!" Rory said, unable to believe what he had done. "No!"

"_AMY!"_ She heard in her mind, yelling to her, stronger than before.

"Doctor." She whispered, and she felt Rory stiffen slightly under her. She didn't care, she knew she should but she didn't. She could feel the Doctor's fear, his fear for himself, but more so for her. He knew what was happening, he could feel it, she could feel that he could feel her pain, her weakness. She tried to stop it; she tried to control herself, to stop the Doctor feeling her pain, her suffering. She didn't want to put the Doctor through that.

She pulled herself off of Rory's shoulder and looked him in the eyes. She needed to tell him, she needed to make sure he knew.

She didn't blame him.

She opened her lips to speak, but the words died on her lips. She stiffened, her body convulsing, before she dropped back; everything leaving her, all control, all life. Her head spun, daze overcame her and she fell, not feeling Rory's clutch on her back, his hold on her. She could feel nothing; she was dead.

Rory was back; Roman Rory, plastic Rory, but Rory himself. Gone were the instructions, the sound in his head, the struggle. The rip that tore through him as he shot Amy tore away the intrusions.

He was back, to watch Amy die.

* * *

"You lot," The Doctor finally bit out, forcing himself to concentrate. "Working together; an alliance. How is that possible?"

"The cracks in the skin of the universe." Began the supreme Dalek.

"All reality is threatened." Continued the Sontarin.

"All Universes will be deleted." Concluded a Cyberman.

"What?" He panted, writhing as another, worse twinge passed through him. "And you've come to me? For help?"

"No! We will save the Universe, from you!" Declared the Sontarin.

"From me?"

"All predictions correlate, all evidence concurs; the Doctor will destroy the Universe." Said the Cyberman.

"No, no, no!" He cried. "You've got it wrong!"

"The Pandorica was constructed to ensure the safety of the alliance." The Cyberman replied.

"A scenario was devised from the memories of your companion." The Supreme Dalek told him.

"A trap the Doctor could not resist." The Sontarin proclaimed.

"The cracks in time are the work of the Doctor!" The Supreme Dalek announced. "It is confirmed."

"No, no, not me, the TARDIS!" He tried to explain. "And I'm not in the TARDIS, am I?"

"Only the Doctor can pilot the TARDIS." The Supreme Dalek replied.

"Please, listen to me!" He cried as the pain began to get worse.

"You will be prevented!" The Dalek interrupted.

"Total event collapse! Every sun will supernova at every moment in history! The whole Universe will never have existed!" His voice raising in panic and in pain. "Please! Listen to me!"

"Seal the Pandorica." The Cyberman announced.

"No, please, LISTEN TO ME!" He yelled as the doors began to close. "The TARDIS is exploding right now and I'm the only one who can stop it! LISTEN TO ME!"

The doors shut, closing a second before Amy died. The Doctor was stuck in the box, trapped for all eternity in this one second, the pain of Amy ripping through his body, tearing him limb from limb and the pulling the flesh from his bones, while never harming a single hair on his head.

All around him, the Universe was going out, and the Doctor would die through it forever.

* * *

_Okay, I'm sorry munchkins, I split up the chapter to make it last longer, and because I thought that 2000 words was too long - I'm basing this on my own short attention span. I'll make it up to you at some point._

_Now, you're might be upset to hear that for the next couple of weeks that chapters are going to be few and far between. I suddenly have a MASSIVE workload, so many books to read (boring ones) and essays to write (rubbish ones) which leaves me no time to actually do the things I WANT to do [/Rant]. Luckily, this has fallen right on the cliffhanger ending, so that works well :D  
_

_Love you all xx  
_


	13. Chapter 13

**Amelia Pond, the girl who waited, prayed to Santa. Every night she'd ask the old man to come or to send someone else to fix the crack in her wall. But no one ever came. **

**Amy was a strange child, a lonely one. No parents, no family but her Aunt, no friends at school. She was avoided; nobody wanted to be friends with the little girl who believed in stars.**

**One night as she listened on the landing to her Aunt worrying about Star Cults, she saw something being posted through the door. She didn't see who posted it, not properly, just the vague glimpse of a man in a red hat. **

**It was a leaflet to the National museum, with a large red circle and an arrow pointing to one exhibit – the Pandorica. Scrawled across the back were the words **_**'Come along Pond'**_**.**

**The next day she made her Aunt Sharon take her to the Museum. She ignored all of the exhibits, breezing through them all, despite her Aunt's protests, until she reached the Pandorica. It was a box, a great big box; nothing special. A minute later she looked again and saw a post-it note planted on the box; **_**'stick around Pond'**_** scrawled in the same handwriting.**

**So she did. Evading her Aunt for the rest of the day she hid with the Penguins from the Nile. She waited, ignoring her Aunts calls and just sat. The museum closed, and eventually she left her hiding spot. Returning to the Pandorica, she saw the note was still there and skipped the barriers. Curiosity overtaking her, she placed her hand on the stone box, and watched with fascination. The engraved design on the faces lit up, glowing green, and she heard noises from within, clunking noises, and it began to move. She took her hand off and stepped back as the faces peeled apart, a bright white light shining out from within. She waited in awe as it opened, until she could see past the light and inside.**

**A red haired woman was sitting inside, strapped in securely.**

"**Okay kid," The woman panted. "This is where it gets interesting."

* * *

**

Rory Williams the Roman sat alone at stone henge. No other life for miles around. The sky was dark, not a star to light the sky, the crackling firelight all that was left to spread a bit of warmth and light in the field.

Rory wasn't completely alone, not really. He had his dream woman lying across his lap, unmoving, dead. That really wasn't any better.

He couldn't bring himself to do anything with her. He had clutched her as she died, falling back, only being held up by his hold on her, but then he too fell, sobbing over what he had done, and she had dropped onto him. So he stayed like this for hours, sobbing over what he had done until he had cried himself out.

He smoothed the hair from his face. "So the Universe ended," He told her, his voice hoarse from crying. "You missed that." He looked at the dark sky, not quite understanding what had happened, but knew a vague amount from the instructions and plans that the Roman's had been given. "102 AD."

He looked down to her. She could have been sleeping. He moved his hand back so he better supported her head. "Suppose this means you and I have never been born at all; puts everything in perspective."

He nudged her head up so that she faced him. "Why did you do it, Amy?" He asked her. "You waited for him, why couldn't you wait for me?" He felt himself beginning to cry again. "We could have been together again."

He knew deep down that it didn't make a difference, that even if she hadn't died, and even if she hadn't fallen for the Doctor, it probably would have never worked anyway. They might've married, had kids, but she wouldn't have been happy.

He heard a zapping noise and looked up to see the Doctor there, standing in front of him. "Rory!" The Doctor cried, before clutching his stomach. "Ow!"

"Doctor..." Rory growled. He felt so angry just _seeing _him! How dare he take Amy from him, the love of his life!

"She's not dead." The Doctor panted, and winced. Rory felt his anger diminish, hope taking its place. "Well, she is, but it's not..." He trailed off and doubled over, clutching his stomach. "OW!" He cried again, his voice starting low and ending as a yell. Grabbing his wrist, he suddenly blinked out of existence with a zap, leaving Rory alone with Amy dead in his lap.

"Doctor?" He called out. "Doctor?"

There was no reply. Rory leant back against the rock, frustrated, and resigned himself to wait. It infuriated him that he had to rely on that man to save him, to save the day, but he knew he had to. Despite everything, that man had given him hope, and hope meant Amy had a chance.

Within a few minutes the Doctor was back. "You need to get me out of the Pandorica." He told him, visibly stressed, but faring better than the last time.

"What were you saying about Amy?" Rory demanded, and the Doctor shook his head.

"It'll work out." He told him firmly. "Pay attention. You need to get me out of the Pandorica."

Rory rolled his eyes. "But you're not in the Pandorica."

"Yes I am," He told him, clutching his stomach again. "Well I'm not now, but I was back then, which is back now from your point of view which is OW." He said, interrupting himself in pain. Rory, despite everything, found himself worrying about the Time Lord. The Doctor was in pain; Rory was angry, but not uncaring. He pushed on. "Easy to open from the inside; point and press." He took out the Sonic Screwdriver and threw it to him. It landed between Rory's chest plate and Amy.

He winced again, his hand clawing at his stomach as he glanced to Amy. "Now go." He spat out, before vanishing again.

Rory knew what he had to do.

The Doctor reappeared. "And put the Sonic in Amy's top pocket when you're done with it." He instructed with a grimace, and vanished for the last time.

* * *

_This chapter might be changed for wibbly wobbly timey wimey reasons, so when the chapter arrives where we see the Doctor's point of view of the scene, you might want to come back and check it._

_Hope you're all less stressed than I am - you only got this chapter because I started it before it started raining work and essays and books._

_Love love xx  
_


	14. Chapter 14

Rory carefully extracted himself from underneath Amy, taking great care. He lifted her as smoothly as if she had been sleeping, and lay her down on the grass. He looked at her for a few seconds, deliberating what to do, before grabbing a sheet that had been left behind by one of the Romans. He threw it over her, covering her.

He couldn't believe this. He had to go and rescue the man that had stolen his fiancé in the hope that he would bring her back to life. Screw the rest of the world, screw the Universe, screw all of time itself; he just wanted Amy to be alive. He would do anything for that to happen.

He walked down the steps into the Underhenge, each step causing metal to clash against metal, echoing in the empty world. As he approached the Pandorica, he looked at the screwdriver in his hand, debating what he was about to do. If he was to let the Doctor out, it was more than likely that she would leave with him again, leave Rory alone while they travelled the Universe. Doing this would save Amy, but he still wouldn't have her.

It didn't matter. Rory knew this, it simply didn't matter. No matter what, if there was a way to save her, his best friend, he would have to take it.

He pressed the screwdriver and pointed it to the box, marvelling as it opened before him, the faces sliding back and a blindingly bright light emitting from within. But it was more than just what he saw, he could hear as well. He could hear a wailing, a pain ridden cry from inside, yelling so mournfully that Rory had to step back in fear.

The doors opened, and Rory saw the Doctor inside, writhing in pain. He stopped screaming; instead gritting his teeth as the restraints peeled back and he tumbled out, landing ungracefully on the floor.

"Doctor?" Rory asked, terrified of the Doctor looking so helpless.

"Amy." The Doctor panted, trying to sit up yet wincing with his whole body, grimacing as he clutched his chest. "Where's Amy?"

"She's upstairs." He told the Time Lord. "Doctor, she's not... she's-"

"I know." He wheezed. "I can feel it."

"Can you do anything?" Rory asked desperately.

"Take me to her." The Doctor spat out.

Rory helped him up the steps and lead him to where she was. The Doctor half-knelt, half-fell down beside her and carefully peeled back the blanket from her face. He gritted his teeth.

"It's fading." He said out loud, his voice no longer as strained as it had been. He placed his hands on her face, fingertips precisely positioned.

"What are you doing?" Rory asked defensively. The Doctor ignored him, focusing completely on what he was doing, pushing through into Amy's mind, never stopping to look at anything until he found the link. When he finally looked back to Rory he was visibly relieved, his face less pained, his breathing easier.

"We need to get her downstairs." He told him. "Help me move her."

"What's going on?" Rory demanded, refusing to do anything until he answered. "What are you doing with her?"

"I'm saving her, Rory," The Doctor told him, breathing frustration and pain. "The Pandorica, it's more than just a prison, it's a space in time, a gap. Everything in there stops; you can live through the death of the Universe and never even feel it. Everything in there stays exactly as it was when they went in."

"And?" Rory asked.

"Amy isn't dead, not completely." He told him, beginning to move her, and motioned for Rory to do the same.

"How is that possible?" He asked, picking her up by the feet as the Doctor took her shoulders.

"I kept her alive."

"Is that what you were doing? Just now?"

"Just now, and since I was locked in the Pandorica." He explained, panting heavily, stressed and exhausted, but quite clearly in less pain than before. "Amy and I, we have this link, a psychic connection."

"What?" Rory demanded. The Doctor brushed past it.

"I went into the Pandorica with the link still alive, but only just. The Pandorica kept her alive, but we don't have much time."

"How come it didn't die when I let you out?" The Roman asked.

"Her body got used to maintaining it, keeping it constant. It started to fade but I strengthened it, just a bit, which is why we need to get her in there now."

"Right." Rory conceded, now manoeuvring the steep staircase with the Doctor and Amy. They took great care as they rushed, both of them careful to not damage the dead girl any further. They remained silent as they got to the Pandorica until the Doctor began to strap her in. "How is this going to work? Have you got a plan?"

"Bit of a plan." The Doctor admitted. "Memories are more powerful than you think and Amy Pond is not an ordinary girl." He held her face fondly as he spoke, looking into her eyes, and Rory looked away in disgust. "Grew up with a time crack in her wall, the universe pouring through her dreams every night; the Nestine took a memory print of her and got a bit more than they bargained for! Like you." He turned to Rory. "Not just your face but your heart and your mind and your soul." He closed his eyes, hands positioned on her face like before.

"What are you doing now?" Rory said in annoyance.

"Leaving her a message so she knows what's happening." He stayed still for a few more seconds, before pulling away, stepping out of the Pandorica and holding up the sonic. He pressed it down, closing the box before he could change his mind, locking up the woman he loved for 2000 years.

They stood silently, looking at the box in the cold, quiet room.

"So what now?" Rory asked, his voice coming out choked.

"It needs a scan of her living DNA to restore her."

"How do we get that?"

"Wait about 2000 years." The Doctor said solemnly. He turned to Rory abruptly. "We're taking the short cut." He fiddled with his wristband.

"She's going to be stuck in that box for 2000 years?" Rory asked.

"She'll be fine." The Doctor told him gruffly. "She'll sleep through it, won't feel a thing, she's already done the hard bit."

"That's not what I'm worried about." Rory turned back to the box, stroking it sadly.

"Nothing can get in there, Rory." The Doctor told him.

"You did, I did." He reminded him. "She needs a guard; I killed the last one." He looked to the Doctor.

"Well what are you suggesting?" The Doctor asked in annoyance. He wasn't happy either, of course he wasn't, but what other option did they have?

"Doctor, I'm not human, am I?" Rory asked him. "I shot Amy with a gun literally _in_ my hand. That's not human."

The Doctor looked at him, debating within himself how he was going to tell him. "No." He said simply. "You're not. They took a snapshot of Amy's memories and brought them to life. You're a Nestine duplicate with delusions of humanity."

"But I feel human." Rory interjected.

"You're as close as you can possibly be; you fought your commands and that's _very_ human." He told him.

"When I got the orders I found out what I was, Doctor." Rory told him. "I'm made of plastic."

"Living plastic." He corrected.

"Will I age? Will I ever grow old?"

The Doctor finally saw where he was going. "_No_, Rory, you-" He begun again. "You won't grow old, but I'm not letting you stay here for 2000 years. You won't even be able to sleep, Rory, you'll go mad!"

"Will she be safer if I stay?" Rory demanded, brave, brilliant Rory.

The Doctor gritted his teeth. "Of course she would be."

"Well, then how can I leave her?" Rory concluded, looking back to the box. The Doctor was upset, confused and so very annoyed; it was _him_ that should be staying here, watching out for Amy, looking after her, giving up his life for her, but he couldn't. Rory could. For once, the Doctor couldn't do everything.

"Why do you have to be so... _human_?" The Doctor asked softly.

"Because right now I'm not." Rory replied. They stayed in silence for a few seconds before the Doctor started pressing buttons on River's Vortex Manipulator, setting in the destination for 2000 years.

"Doctor?" Rory asked, and he looked up. "You said I never existed. What does that mean?"

Again the Doctor took his time in answering, unsure how to tell him, how to spare his feelings, but knowing that it needed to be said. "You fell through a crack in the skin of the universe and you were wiped from the whole of time and space; you never existed. All memories of you were forgotten, all traces of you were wiped."

"Then how am I here? How come you remembered me? How did Amy remember me?"

"Because Amy is magnificent." He told him simply. "It took her time but she eventually remembered you, she noticed the hole in her life. She loved you a lot."

"Yeah." Rory scoffed. "Was that before or after she slept with you?"

"Before." He told him. "She still loves you now."

"Clearly." He huffed. "This isn't fair, Doctor. I was supposed to be getting married in the morning."

"You still could." He reminded him, and Rory scowled incredulously. "It's Amy's choice."

"And if chose me?" Rory asked.

"I wouldn't do anything to stop her." He told him.

"Right." He scoffed again, before seeing the expression on the Doctor's face. "You really love her, don't you?" The Doctor looked away uncomfortably, but Rory could see it, could see the tears in his eyes, saw the Doctor's hand flinch to his stomach again.

"Yes." The Doctor replied. They both looked at each other, Amy's men together, having reached an understanding. The Doctor went back to pressing buttons on his wrist band. "Listen to me." The Doctor told him. "This is the last bit of advice you're going to get in a _very_ long time: you're living plastic but you're not immortal, I have no idea how long you'll last." He wagged his finger at the Roman. "And you're not indestructible; stay away from heat, and radio signals when they come along. You can't heal or repair yourself, any damage is permanent, so for God's sake, Rory," The Doctor smiled at him fondly. "Stay out of-"

The Doctor vanished, his wristband snatching him out of the air with a buzz of static. Rory was alone.

He took out his sword and sat down. He was Roman and he was ready to fight off anyone who dared threaten Amy's safety. He was Rory Williams, the man who waited.


	15. Chapter 15

Amy woke up, gasping as air rammed through her lungs, her body starved for it, her head spinning as life thrust back into her. First on the agenda: breathing.

She quickly took in her surroundings, analysing where she was. It was a small room, tiny, bathed in green light. She couldn't see much of anything. She tried to move, but was startled to find herself anchored, and when she looked she could see herself strapped into the chair, her wrists trapped, and what looked like a giant metal ribcage secured around her chest. She couldn't move any further; she could feel something limiting her movement around her head.

Then she noticed it, the change from before; the lack of pain. She had been dying, she had felt it, she had _really _felt it. She had felt something from the Doctor too, a worse pain, more than physical, something deep inside that had wrenched at her organs. She had been dying... but she apparently wasn't now. She briefly wondered if she was dead, but quickly decided this wasn't how she had pictured heaven being like.

"Doctor?" She called, a long shot, but it was worth a try. Suddenly she felt her mind being flooded, a message, words, love. She could feel it; she could feel _him_ inside her mind, talking to her, leaving instructions. _Rest_, he kept telling her, _rest_. He was explaining it too – she had been hurt, but he had put her in the Pandorica, to be resuscitated later on by her future self, by little Amelia Pond. She was awake, which meant that any second now the doors would...

She heard a whirring, mechanical thunking, and the light got brighter. She squinted her eyes, unable to shield herself with her hand, and peered into the room beyond that was rapidly becoming visible through the crack in the Pandorica doors. The light faded, she could see clearly, and she smiled as she panted, the restraints peeling back as she faced her younger self.

"Okay, Kid," Amy told the little girl. "This is where things get complicated."

* * *

_I'm sorry for leaving you all for so long - it was mean of me. But now I have a lovely reading week, which means I shall be writing as much as I can, and I'll try to put something up as often as possible._

_Now, I know some of you will complain that this chapter is too short, but I figured that it's better than nothing, and will atleast tide you over a little bit. _

_Love you all - I hope you haven't forgotten about me :( xxx  
_


	16. Chapter 16

The restraints peeled back from Amy, and she went to step out, but found herself falling out instead. She hadn't moved in 2000 years – her muscles weren't quite warmed up yet. She landed on her hands and knees, but found that thankfully she wasn't paralysed, just tired, and forced herself back into a more comfortable sitting position, panting all the way.

"Are you alright?" The little girl asked her. She looked round to her, trying to reply but only a choking noise left her. "Who are you?" Amelia asked again.

"I'm... fine," Amy finally replied. "I'm supposed to rest, gotta rest, the Doctor says."

"What Doctor?" The little girl asked.

"He's in here," Amy tapped her head with her finger. "Left a message in my head like I'm an answerphone." She said with a smile, but then frowned slightly. Where was he? She could feel him faintly, floating around in her subconscious, a friendly little presence. He wasn't present, he wasn't near – she knew she'd know. "Where am I? Oh... National Museum, right? I was here once when I was a little..." She looked round to the little ginger girl who was peering down at her with curiosity. "Yeah... complicated." She finally stood up, staggering to her feet and measuring the little Amelia against her chest, judging her height. "Let's see, it's what, 1996?" She fanned out the girl's hair, checking the length before walking behind her, looking around.

"Who are you?" Amelia asked again, watching the bizarre woman wandering around.

"It's a long story." Amy told her as she read the history of the Pandorica, read her own history. "A _very_ long story." Amy pressed a button on the panel and heard an automated voice crackle behind her as it begun to tell her the history of the Pandorica. It told her the tale of the mysterious box, and of its guard. She was confused, until the words begun to make sense and she understood who her guard was.

"_According to legend, wherever the Pandorica was taken throughout its long history, the centurion would be there guarding it."_

"Oh... Rory..." Amy breathed, placing a hand on her heart.

"_It appears as an iconic image in the artwork of many cultures and there are several documented accounts of his appearances and his warnings to the many who would try to open the box before its time."_ Amy smiled, forever thankful of her best friend, but felt the guilt flood her as she thought of how she had treated him. It wasn't fair that he could be so kind after all that she had done.

"_His last recorded appearance was during the London blitz in 1941. The warehouse where the Pandorica was stored was destroyed by bombs, but the box itself was found the next morning a safe distance from the blaze. There are eyewitness accounts from the night of the fire and of a figure in roman dress carrying the box from the flames. Since then there have been no sightings of the lone centurion, and many have speculated that if he ever existed, he perished in the fires of that night, performing one last act of devotion towards the box he had pledged to protect for nearly 2000 years."_

The little girl looked up to the woman, wondering at her tears. She seemed upset by what she was hearing, and she watched as she sniffed and wiped at her eyes and nose. She wondered if she knew the man that they were talking about.

"Oh, Rory." Amy whispered again. He shouldn't have done that. Why did he have to be so perfect, so loving and wonderful and devoted to her when all she ever did was hurt him?

They were interrupted by a sickening voice behind them, a screeching, metallic voice, bathed in venom and hatred. "EXTERMINATE!"

Amy grabbed Amelia, running in front of her to protect herself. She shielded the little girl as she saw the Dalek roll towards them. It wasn't what she had been expecting, though, not the brightly coloured robots, proud and magnificent, nor the smaller, military Daleks she had seen. This one was made of stone, decaying and falling apart, chunks missing from it, no sign of anything that once was except the bright light of its eye.

Suddenly she found herself distracted, something flooding her mind, something was coming. Then she felt it, she felt him a split second before he arrived and she smiled broadly as she heard the crackle of static and saw him roar into existence.

"-Trouble!" The Doctor said as he appeared, taking in the slowly moving Dalek. "Oh." He turned round and smiled widely at Amy, so pleased to see her, she so pleased to see him, and for a second they shared their joy, boomeranging between them both. He forced himself to focus, looking down at little Amelia. "Ah, two of you, complicated."

"EXTERMINATE!" The Dalek called again, and the Doctor looked round, stepping back defensively, though unnecessarily as he watched the creature look down in what could almost be construed as confusion, looking at its arm. "SYSTEMS RESTORING!"

"Come along, Ponds!" The Doctor yelled, grabbing the two girls and tugging them to the far side of the room, away from the still yelling Dalek. They stopped in a dark corner next to a display, and Amy embraced him.

"Did you miss me?" She asked cheekily. She smiled coyly, and the Doctor, despite everything, despite their lives being in danger and his earlier promise to Rory that he would allow the other man a chance, smiled back, relishing having Amy in his arms again.

"The worst hour of my life." The Doctor told her truthfully, trying to forget the burning pain that had been roaring through him not too long before. He smiled as Amy leant up, pressing her lips to his and winding her hands round his neck, letting go of the little girls hand who peered up at them incredulously. For a second, the Doctor kissed Amy back, but quickly forced himself to push her away, and managing to fall into the display beside them. She staggered back, looking and feeling hurt, and the Doctor's resolve softened, just a bit. "Not the time, Amy."

"What are we doing?" Amy asked the Doctor impatiently as he tried to tidy up the display, and doing a bad job of it.

"Well, we are running into a dead end where I am going to have a brilliant plan which basically involves not being in one." The Doctor disentangled himself from the display, holding onto the mannequin's fez and tossing it between his hands.

"What's going on?" They heard a voice call, and saw a light reaching into the room. The Doctor ran to the edge of the Pandorica, peering round to the man.

"Get out of here!" He called. "Go! Just run!"

The Dalek moved, rotating to look at the intruder. "DROP THE DEVICE!" It ordered.

"It's not a weapon, scan it, it's not a weapon!" The Doctor yelled. "And you don't have the power to waste!" He felt his hand being grabbed, and looked down to see little Amelia Pond clutching to him. He glanced up to the older version, who shrugged.

"SCANS INDICATE INTRUDER UNARMED!" The Dalek announced.

"You think?" The man asked, sounding surprisingly unsurprised by everything that was happening, and just a little bit cocky. He dropped the torch, and the Doctor heard something click, and two shots fired.

"VISION IMPARED! VISIooo..." The Dalek's voice trailed off, its head spinning and it rolled backwards, injured. Its eyestalk drooped, and the light went out. The Doctor ran out, screwdriver in hand as he scanned the alien, closely followed by the two Amelia's.

"Hello." The man greeted them cooly. They looked to him and Amy gasped, unable to believe what she was seeing.

"Rory!" She cried, stunned and unable to move. The Doctor smiled slightly, nodding to the man.

"Hello Amy." Rory said to her, his voice a bit warmer now, and took a step towards her. She began to move, walking and then running towards him, grabbing him in a hug.

"Rory!" She cried again, her voice muffled by his jacket as she pressed herself against him, unable to believe he was here, he was real. Rory hugged her back, relishing in holding her, and looked up to the Doctor, who merely looked away. As soon as he had seen Rory, he had clamped down his emotions again, stifling the link so that Amy would not feel him, but he could still feel her. She was happy, so very happy to have her friend back. The Doctor forced himself not to think about it, reminding himself of his earlier promise. If she wanted Rory, she could have Rory. He scanned the Dalek again.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't help it, it just happened." He heard the man say.

"It's fine, don't worry about it." She told him with a laugh, so happy to see him that she didn't care that he had shot her.

"It's not though!" He told her, and she shook her head. The Doctor glanced over, knowing that they had to move on, that the Dalek would wake up soon, that he should interrupt them, that he wanted to interrupt them _so_ much, but that they needed a minute. He owed them that much. "I waited, 2000 years I waited for you."

Amy felt a stab of guilt at the words, a huge stab of guilt, and the Doctor felt it too. "You protected me." She said. "I saw. You're a legend." She laughed awkwardly, and looked down to her feet. "You shouldn't've."

"I had to." Rory told her. The Doctor looked away, unable to take it, and was pleased to feel a distracting tug on his arm. He looked down to see Amelia there.

"I'm thirsty, can I get a drink?" She asked, and the Doctor rolled his eyes.

"Not really the time, is it?" He told her grumpily, placing the fez on her head. She took it off and shoved it back to him. He looked away, the Dalek catching his eye, framed artistically with the light from the Pandorica behind it. "The light..." He murmured. "The light from the Pandorica, it must've hit the Dalek."

As he said this, the Dalek began to whirr into life, and the Doctor stepped back, grabbing the little girl by the hand. "Out, out, OUT!" He yelled to them all, separating Amy and Rory in his effort to get them all to safety, away from the Dalek behind them.


	17. Chapter 17

They pushed through the doors into a hallway in the museum, and the Doctor buzzed the door shut behind him. He turned to Rory, determined to be polite at the least.

"So, 2000 years, how'd you do?" He asked, plastering a fake smile on his face, though genuinely a little intrigued.

"Stayed out of trouble." The Centurion replied, frowning at the Doctor, displeased with how Amy had positioned himself close to the Doctor. If Amy had been standing that close to _him_, he would be far more pleased by it than the Doctor seemed to be.

"Oh." The Doctor said, stepping away from the door as Rory walked over to Amy, determined to claim his place. They watched as the Doctor floundered with the fez that he was still holding, which he eventually put on his head. "How?"

"Successfully." He said sarcastically, and watched as the Doctor picked up a mop and moved towards the door. "Wait." Rory told the Doctor as he headed for the door, mop in hand. He looked him in the eyes, and the Doctor could see the conflict going on – the desire to help conflicting with wanting to punch the Doctor.

"Don't have time, Rory." He told him.

"The mop." He said, his voice dripping with loathing. "That's how you looked all those years ago when you gave me the sonic."

"Ah." The Doctor said, glancing down at himself with a shrug. "No time to lose then." He punched instructions into Rivers vortex manipulator and vanished with a flash.

* * *

"Rory!" The Doctor greeted, then winced, clutching his stomach. "Ow."

"Doctor." Rory growled, looking like he would have punched the Doctor had Amy not been in the way.  
"She's not dead," He told him, and Rory's angry demeanour dropped a bit. "Well, she is dead, but it's not..." He trailed off and doubled over. "OW!"

He blinked out of existence.

* * *

He reappeared in front of Amy, and looked up at her, wheezing slightly as he was doubled over. He looked at her, and she was clutching her stomach too.

"Doctor, what was that?" She asked.

"You felt it too?" He whispered.

"Yeah."

"That's you, that's you dying." He told her. "Our link. I could feel it again when I went back."

"That's what you felt? When I died?" She asked, tears glimmering in her eyes, and not from the rapidly subsiding pain. "It hurt that much?"

"You felt an echo of an echo, Amy." He told her. He started to continue, but decided she didn't need to know just how much it hurt. He winced. "I need to go back." He told her.

"Will it hurt again?" She asked, and then shook her head. "Of course it will, stupid question."

He looked at her, trying to decide what to do. "There's a way that might make it hurt less, if you'll let me."

"What is it?" She asked, concern more for him than for her; she had felt only a part of what he had, it must've hurt so much more for him.

"Use the link to feed through a memory, a happy memory, to counteract the bad." He told her. "Like thinking of something nice when you're getting an injection."

"Do it." She told him, and allowed him to place his hands on her face. Suddenly she felt him _inside_ her, sifting, rooting around. She smiled, and he did too. Helpfully bringing up a good memory, she felt the last remnants of the pain subside.

"That'll do." He told her, remembering. Space Florida, the first morning of them. They were sitting in bed eating breakfast.

She opened her eyes and saw him close, smiling at her. She leant in and kissed him, the link still open and strong between them. "I love you." She told him against his lips.

"Love you too." He told her, before pulling away. He looked at the mop that was resting in the crook of his arm. "Oh." He walked back to the door like he had been planning in the first place and fed it through the handles, giving them a tiny bit more security, before vanishing again.

* * *

"You need to get me out of the Pandorica." He told Rory, holding on tightly to the memory, fighting off the feeling of death that was trying to spread through his body. He took his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket.

"What were you saying about Amy?" The Roman asked.

"It'll work out." He told him firmly. "Pay attention. You need to get me out of the Pandorica."

Rory rolled his eyes. "But you're not in the Pandorica."

"Yes I am," He told him, clutching his stomach again. "Well I'm not now, but I was back then, which is back now from your point of view which is OW." He interrupted, feeling it twinge again. Amy was probably feeling it too. He ignored it, pushing past it; happy thoughts. "Easy to open from the inside; point and press." He threw it to him, landing in the Romans lap. He looked at Amy, dying Amy, lying in Rory's arms.

He winced again and stopped looking, focusing on _his_ Amy; alive Amy. "Now go."

He vanished with a roar of static.

* * *

The Doctor reappeared again, landing with the same buzz as usual, and tried to force a smile through the pain. "Right!" He said, faux cheerfully. "Let's go." He let go of his stomach, and began to run up the stairs before a thought occurred to him. "Wait." He said, pointing at Rory. "I just gave my sonic to you..."

"Yeah..." Rory replied, thinking back.

"That explains why you managed to let me out earlier, didn't question it at the time, I had other things on my mind."

"So what now?" Amy asked, taking a step towards him. The Doctor tried to ignore it, hating that he kept forgetting that he was giving Rory a chance to win back Amy. He looked down at his wrist, pressing buttons and disappearing again.

* * *

"And put the sonic in Amy's top pocket when you're done with it." He instructed the confused Roman, grimacing at the pain before transporting back.

* * *

"Right then." He said, stepping towards Amy, but hesitating. Perhaps going into Amy's jacket wasn't a good idea right now. "Top pocket please."

"What?" She asked, confused.

"My screwdriver, your top pocket." He instructed, and she felt inside with a slight frown, and pulled out the tool. "Thanks. Off we go!" He went to run up the stairs, but stopped again. "Nope..." he turned round with a frown, seeing them all stop behind him. "How did _you_ know to come here?" He crouched down towards Amelia, talking to her on her level. She silently pulled out a wad of paper from her pocket and handed it to him. He looked through it, understanding. "Ahhh... My handwriting." He threw them behind him. "Okay."

Grabbing a leaflet from a stand and a post-it note and pen, he zapped out of existence again.

"What's he doing?" Rory asked.

"Probably sorting _that_ out." She gestured towards the mess of paper on the floor.

"Right." Rory replied. He turned to Amy abruptly, making full use of the Doctor's absence. "We need to talk." He told her. Amy looked back to him, opening her mouth to speak but was interrupted by the Doctor's sudden reappearance.

"There you go, drink up." He handed a large cup to the little girl. "They won't miss it." He told her with a grin, running back up the stairs.

"What is that?" Amy finally asked the question on everyone's minds. "How are you doing that?"

"Vortex manipulator." He told her with a grin. "Cheap and nasty time travel, very bad for you," he chuckled. "I'm trying to give it up."

He tried to smother his happiness, it wasn't fair on Rory, but it was hard to with Amy looking so beautiful and alive so close to him. He looked away, beginning to go up the stairs.

"Where are we going?" She asked.

"To the roof." He told her, not looking round. The four of them began to climb the steps, but stopped as they heard something: a buzz of static, and an anguished cry from Amy.


	18. Chapter 18

Amy had been full of purpose, on a mission, ready to save the planet... until the pain struck.

She hadn't understood, the echo of an echo that she had felt was nothing compared to what was stabbing her through the heart. She didn't hear the rush of static that filled the room, couldn't register the bright flash of blue light that appeared; her whole focus became a sudden battle for consciousness.

The Doctor and Rory saw her fall and rushed to her aid, helping her to the ground as she writhed. Then their focus was split as they saw the cause of her pain. The Doctor had appeared at the top of the stairs, a future Doctor, looking as raggedy and dirty as the first time Amy had laid eyes upon him. He staggered, and the Doctor, the current Doctor, the Doctor clutching onto Amy looked up in horror. He could feel it, the clawing of death from Amy, and he knew what that meant.

Amy forced herself to look, terrified and determined to see what was happening, and saw the Doctor at the top of the stairs. She knew the pain; the death was coming from him, and tried to move, to reach him. Rory held her close, clutching onto his woman to protect her, while the Doctor was less proactive, unable to make a decision between attempting to comfort Amy and working out what was going on.

Before he could make a decision the dying Doctor began to fall, his knees giving way beneath him and he dropped, falling and toppling and plummeting down the stone stairs, the bashes nothing to what his body was going through, until he finally landed, his eyes closed, his body in rest, as if asleep. He looked dead, but the Doctor knew from Amy's still shuddering body, her anguished cries and her clammy clasp on him that he was still alive, and only just.

He turned away from himself, making priorities.

"Doctor, can you do something?" Rory asked, desperate. The Doctor didn't look to him to see his expression, the tears in his eyes, the desperation. He knew it himself. He looked instead to Amy. She was turning pale, shaking and stifling the yells that were jammed in her throat, looking fiercely up at him.

"What's happening?" She asked. "Why?"

"Shhh." The Doctor told her gently, stroking her hair. "I'm going to make it better, okay? You trust me?"

Amy's eyes shone, recognising his words, remembering them from the forest. She nodded, not trusting her voice, though let out a pained whimper. The Doctor placed his hands on her face, diving into her mind. The pain which he had blocked off, the link he had clamped down, automatically forced himself to seal off now poured through, and his body rocked back, shaking from the force. He pushed through it, ignoring it as best he could, and quickly found what he was looking for.

Amy's body turned limp underneath him, and she sunk into Rory's arms.

"What did you do?" Rory asked, relieved and panicked.

"I knocked her out for a few minutes." He told him grimly.

"You did _what?_" Rory demanded.

"What else could I do?" The Doctor yelled, startling the man into silence. The Doctor looked back to his sleeping Amy, thankful to see her peaceful, before turning to the dying Time Lord behind him. He took out his sonic screwdriver, waving it over him and checking the readings. It was him, definitely him – though there had been little doubt before since Amy's reaction – and he was definitely hurt.

He – the dying Doctor – suddenly opened his eyes and sat up, grasping the Doctor's neck for support and whispering in his ear. After a few seconds he stopped, dropping back, satisfied he had passed on the message. The Time Lord winced, his face contorting in pain and let out a tortured moan, before relaxing. Dead.

Seconds passed in silence.

"Doctor?" He heard behind him, and after a few seconds more he turned to look at him. "What... I mean, is that you?"

"Me?" The Doctor said, his voice choking. "Yes, of course it's me."

"But you're... are you... are you dead?" Rory stammered out.

"Of course I'm dead." He told him solemnly. He moved over, closer to Rory and Amy, though not close enough to touch her. He merely looked.

"Doctor-"

"It doesn't matter." He told him firmly. "It's not important right now. What is important right now is _right now_." He gabbled, still unable to look away from Amy.

"Right." Rory said, unwilling to push it. Sometimes the Doctor terrified him, and right now, this was one of those times. "What about Amy? What was that?"

"You saw it before, Rory," The Doctor explained. "The link died, and when that happens, it hurts. It hurts like hell."

Rory stayed silent, musing it over, before deciding to talk. "I'm sorry."

The Doctor finally looked up. "It's all for the best, Rory." He told him.

"How?" He asked.

"I'll be finally out of the way." He said grimly. "You can have Amy all to yourself, no other man, no distractions."

"Doctor..." Rory shook his head.

"It's for the best." He repeated. "I keep hurting her. I don't mean to, but one way or another, I end up hurting her." Rory just looked, his jaw tight. "You're better for her." The Doctor concluded.

"I didn't want her this way." Rory told him truthfully.

"I know." The Doctor told him. He understood. Rory wasn't an unkind man.

Amy began to stir, first her lips moving, then her eyelids fluttering, and finally her whole body starting back into consciousness. She sat up in Rory's arms and looked straight to the Doctor.

"What happened?" She demanded, remembering all, but understanding little.

"How are you?" The Doctor countered, scanning his sonic over her.

"I feel better, the pains gone." She told him, and her face dropped, matching the slight flicker in his. "Does that mean..?" She looked past him to the Time Lord, dead on the floor. She pushed herself out of Rory's arms and clambered over to the dead man. "No." She said stubbornly.

"Amy." Rory said uselessly.

"He's not dead." She told herself, and looked round to the still alive Doctor. "You are still alive. You're still here. You can't die."

"You said it yourself, Amy," The Doctor told her. "There's no pain anymore."

"Time can be rewritten!" She yelled, tears pricking her eyes. "We can fix this!"

"If we don't get moving there'll be nothing to rewrite." He told her firmly. "The Universe is still collapsing; we're just gripping on at the eye of the storm." He looked behind Amy and Rory. "And we're slipping."

They turned, not understanding for a minute, but quickly spotting it. "Where's Amelia?"

"There is no Amelia, from now on there never was."

"But how can I still exist?" Amy asked.

"We're just anomalies." The Doctor told her grimly. "And we need to get moving." He began to walk up the steps and out of the room, leaving the sorry scene behind.

Rory and Amy stepped up, both pausing at the dead Doctor. Amy knelt down, a tear dripping from her face to the Doctor's, and she leant over. She caressed his face gently, stroking the planes of it that she had come to love so passionately, but stayed strong for the man that still lived. She allowed one more tear to drop before blinking the rest back. Leaning down, she placed a gentle kiss on the dead Time Lord's lips, and whispered against them, too low for anyone to hear. "We _will_ stop this from happening."

She stood up, and followed the Doctor from the room, not looking back to the man lying there, or to Rory.

The Roman, kind even to his enemies, stepped up to the Doctor. He looked down on the dead man, his sleeping face, and pitied him. Pitied and envied the dead man's lips. Unable to bear it any longer, he shrugged off his coat and threw it over the Time Lord, covering his face, before following the others.

* * *

_Trust me, darlings, that pained me more to write than for you to read it. I prefer my Doctor alive and happy, thank you very much._

_This chapter is for **xmngrl**, who demanded a new chapter from me. I'll have you know, you kept me up till 4 in the morning doing this. _

_Thanks for all the lovely reviews on the last chapter, Love you all, my darings :D xxx  
_


	19. Chapter 19

The Doctor reached the roof and kicked the pebbles grumpily, allowing one ounce of physical frustration out. This wasn't fair – none of this was. He knew he should be focusing _completely_ on the present, working through each individual problem as it came, but what Amy had said was still in there, still cloying in his brain and forcing him to think ahead. He was going to be dying, dying soon, dying before he could fix the world, and as brilliant and wonderful as Amy, and Rory, were, he knew it wasn't within their power to stop this. He needed to find a way to use his death to save everything else; there had to be something. Something was beginning to form, so he stuck it at the back of his mind to stew – right now, now more than ever, he simply had to trust in himself. He would work it out when the time came, which apparently, was not now.

Amy jumped onto the roof behind him. "Doctor?" She called, her voice shaken, but firm. He could feel her trying to remain calm, but he could feel it all under the surface; her sadness, her distress, her anger.

"Busy, Amy." He told her, still grumpy, as he looked at the sky.

"No, Doctor," She said, firmer still, and grabbed his arm, forcing him to look at her, ignoring his mood she could feel emanating from him. "Tell me."

"Tell you what?" He asked quietly.

"How long." She told him. "How long do you have; how long do _we_ have?"

He set his jaw. "Fifteen minutes."

Her face fell a fraction, but he saw her resolve stay strong. "Fifteen?"

"Fifteen when he told me, but we wasted some time; now it's more like eleven."

"Eleven?" She repeated.

"And a half." He told her. He glanced behind her, seeing Rory climb out of the hatch. "We need to keep going."

She nodded, trying to take it in, and he could feel her distress through her calm exterior. She was trying to stay strong, trying for him, she knew that she wasn't alone in her confusion and anguish over the situation, she could feel it, just slightly, even when he buried it – it was too strong. But she would stay strong. She nodded again, more firmly, and the Doctor smiled softly, proud of his wonderful Amy.

"So what do we do?" She asked him, and glanced around, noticing her surroundings. "It's morning already?" She questioned.

"History is shrinking." He told her, looking around too, stopping when he found something of interest to look at, his back to Amy. "We don't have much time left." He jumped on top of a heating vent and aimed his sonic screwdriver at the satellite dish that was perched upon it.

"What are you doing?" Rory asked, now joining them on the roof.

"Looking for the TARDIS." The Doctor replied.

"But the TARDIS exploded." Rory reminded him.

"Okay then, I'm looking for an exploding TARDIS." The Doctor retorted grumpily. Rory sighed and rolled his eyes, looking away.

"But I don't understand!" Amy said, trying to make sense of the situation, trying to focus. "The TARDIS blew up and took the rest of the universe with it, but how would it do that? Why?"

"Good question for another day." The Doctor replied, turning round with a smirk. "The question for now is; total event collapse means that every star in the universe never happened, not one single one of them ever shone, so if all the stars that ever were are gone..." The Doctor turned round dramatically, pointing at what they had assumed to be the sun; the impressively huge ball of fire in the sky. "Then what is that?"

"Oh..." Amy murmured.

"Like I said, I'm looking for an exploding TARDIS." The Doctor concluded.

"But that's the sun!" Rory said, grasping at what he thought he knew.

"Is it?" The Doctor asked, almost kindly, but bragging too. "Well here's the noise that sun is making right now." He pressed the screwdriver to the satellite, allowing them all to hear the familiar wheezing sound, the noise Amy had grown to love so much; the TARDIS was thrumming at the heart of the explosion. "That's my TARDIS burning up, that's what's been keeping the Earth warm."

Rory twitched, and Amy glanced over. He twitched again, and gestured with his hand. "What is it?" Amy asked.

"Doctor?" Rory called. "There's something else, there's a voice."

"I can't hear anything." Amy interjected.

"Plastic, Amy." He told her, and she took a few steps closer to her Doctor as he adjusted the frequency. Within seconds they all heard what Rory could hear, and they all recoiled slightly in shock as they heard River's voice echoing through; a final apology. _"I'm sorry, my Love."_

"Doctor, that's River." Amy said, feeling her horror and the Doctor's intermingling. What had happened to her? She had never found out, far too busy in her own problems to wonder at the woman's sudden absence. "How can she be up there?"

"Must be like a recording, or something." Rory tried to suggest, childishly vying for Amy's approval, but the Doctor cut him short.

"No, it's not a recording, of course!" The Doctor said, looking round, thinking as he spoke aloud. "The emergency protocols, the TARDIS has sealed off the control room and put her into a time loop to save her! She is _right_ at the heart of the explosion!"

"What do we do?" Amy asked, watching as the Doctor stepped down from his platform and pushed buttons on the vortex manipulator.

"Something probably very dangerous, and might well fail." He said, looking up to her, feeling her anticipation, her fear, their combined adrenaline.

"It won't." She said, chuckling nervously. She knew they had enough time; or hoped. The Doctor smiled sadly in return and went to hit the final button, but was stopped by Amy's hand grabbing him. He looked up.

"You need to let go." He sighed; it wouldn't do to bring her with him – it would only complicate the situation further. She shook her head and pulled him towards her, pressing a hasty kiss on his lips. Ten minutes to live, she didn't want to waste any time. This lasted for only a few seconds before they separated and she stepped back, allowing him to go.

* * *

River pressed two thick leads together, ignoring the sparking explosion that ran through the console as she did. She dropped it and twisted a handle anti clockwise, ignoring still more sparks. Running to the doors, she barely looked back at the console, satisfied that she had, at best, landed it. Pulling open the doors her face fell as she looked upon the solid wall of rock that lay in front of her.

"I'm sorry my Love." She sighed, and turned back to watch the console explode.

River pressed two thick leads together, ignoring the sparking explosion that ran through the console as she did. She dropped it and twisted a handle anti clockwise, ignoring still more sparks. Running to the doors, she barely looked back at the console, satisfied that she had, at best, landed it. Pulling open the doors her face fell as she looked upon the solid wall of rock that lay in front of her.

"I'm sorry my Love." She sighed, and turned back to watch the console explode.

River pressed two thick leads together, ignoring the sparking explosion that ran through the console as she did. She dropped it and twisted a handle anti clockwise, ignoring still more sparks. Running to the doors, she didn't look back to the console, instead distracted, though seemingly unsurprised, at the new presence in the TARDIS.

"Hi Honey," The Doctor greeted her smugly. "I'm home."

River looked at her wrist in mock anger. "And what sort of time do you call this?" She asked, ignoring as the TARDIS began to meltdown, her faith in the Doctor overall.

* * *

_I'm sorry my Loves! I have many excuses as to why I haven't updated in so long, like my computer lead breaking, and my friends insistance that I need a social life, and work, but mainly I got out of the habit and had to force myself back into writing it. _

_You all hate me, don't you? PLEASE DON'T! I LOVE YOU ALL!  
_


	20. Chapter 20

"Amy!" River exclaimed as she and the Doctor landed with a buzz of time travelling static. "And the plastic centurion?" She turned to the Doctor questioningly.

"It's okay," He told her. "He's on our side."

"Really?" River questioned, analysing the man's stance, his crossed arms and squared shoulders, his clear body language that was yelling profanity towards the Time Lord. She raised an eyebrow. "I dated a Nestine Duplicate once..." She stepped up to him, watching as he looked awkwardly away. "Swappable head; did keep things fresh." She clapped her hands, changing the subject. "Right then, I have questions, but number one is this..." She looked up to the Doctor with a frown. "What in the name of sanity have _you _got on your head?"

"It's a fez, I wear a fez now," The Doctor told her somewhat arrogantly. "Fez's are cool."

River looked to Amy, raising an eyebrow, communicating with the Scottish girl in a way that the two men couldn't understand; though the Doctor felt sickeningly worried by the crafty glee he was feeling emanating from her. Amy grabbed the Fez, ignoring the Doctor's cry of alarm, and threw it up in the air. It sailed effortlessly through, seemingly destined to fall on the far side of the roof, before it was snatched out of the air, and out of existence, by River's gun.

"Oh!" The Doctor cried indignantly, about to yell at them for destroying his new favourite accessory over a matter of _taste_ when they all found themselves distracted in what could be the worst way possible.

"**EXTERMINATE"** They heard the voice screech seconds before the large white Dalek rose up onto the roof from over the edge of the building.

"Run, run!" The Doctor cried, pushing them all back to the exit. "Move, go!" He picked up the satellite dish and used it as a shield, deflecting the lethal shots from the Dalek and spraying sparks everywhere. They continued their dance of shots and deflecting until the Doctor had backed everyone back into the building, and jumped down himself, sealing it behind him with the sonic screwdriver.

Amy exhaled, relieved to be downstairs and away from the Dalek, and smiled, before realising just how weird her reaction was. She had just run for her life, yet again, from a Dalek intent on killing them, with the imminent threat of the Doctor's death just round the corner, and not to mention the very real possibility of being wiped from existence; so why wasn't she more scared? Why was all she was feeling adrenaline and excitement? She looked to the Doctor, noticing the glee in his face, the excitement; he was enjoying this.

"Doctor," She said, but River spoke too, the same words, interrupting. "Come on." River finished.

"Shh." The Doctor told her. "It's moving away, it's finding another way in; it needs to restore its power before it can attack again. That means it has exactly..." He looked at his watch. "Four and a half minutes before it's at lethal capacity."

"How do you know?" Rory asked.

"Because that's when you think you're going to die, isn't it?" Amy answered, and the Doctor looked up at her. "That's why I'm not scared, you're not scared. You weren't scared of the Dalek up there because you still have time left on the clock."

"Yes!" The Doctor yelled, and Amy felt the sudden flash of something deeper, the fear he had been hiding, but lost it quickly. The Doctor was smothering it for her sake. "That is when it's due to kill me." He said calmly.

"Kill you?" River demanded, taking a step down towards the Doctor. "What do you mean kill you?"

"We won't let it." Amy assured him, also stepping forward, but stopping much closer to the Doctor, inches away from him, and placed a hand on his cheek. "That won't happen."

"I don't think we can stop it, Amy." He told her gently, determined to prepare her for the worst, not letting her steely resolve and determination to give him hope. "I've already crossed my own time-line, it's-"

"Don't care." She shook her head. "It's not happening."

He looked at her with a grim smile for a few seconds, ignoring Rory's disgusted expression and River's shocked confusion, before breaking away and walking down the stairs. He needed to focus. "How can that Dalek even exist? It was erased from time and then it came back; how?"

"You said the light from the Pandorica." Rory reminded him.

"It's not a light," The Doctor told him, wagging a finger. "It's a restoration field, but never mind, call it a light. That light brought Amy back, restored her, but how could it bring back a Dalek when the Daleks have never existed?" The Doctor looked in confusion towards Amy.

"Okay, tell us." She prompted.

"When the TARDIS blew up it caused a total event collapse, a time explosion, and that explosion blasted every atom, every moment in the universe..." He rambled, and Amy could feel his brain ticking as he thought. "Except..."

"Except..." Amy struggled under his gaze, but found herself quickly catching up as she worked out the reason for his pointed gaze towards her. "Inside the Pandoica..."

"The perfect prison," He told her. "And inside it, perfectly preserved, a few billion atoms of the universe as it was. In theory you could extrapolate the whole universe from a single one of them, like, like cloning a body from a single cell," He gestured at Rory. "And we've got the bumper family pack."

"No," Rory shook his head. "Nope, nope, too fast, I'm not getting it."

"The box contains a memory of the Universe and the light transmits the memory, and that's how we're going to do it." He concluded with a smile, walking past his three companions, leaving them baffled.

"What?" Amy asked.

"Relight the fire!" He said, turning round to look at her. "Reboot the universe!" He turned back and walked down the room. "Come on!"

"Doctor, you're being completely ridiculous!" River told him. "The Pandorica _partially_ restored _one_ Dalek! If it can't even reboot a single life form properly, how's it going to reboot the whole of reality?"

"What if we give it a moment of infinite power? What if we can transmit the light from the Pandorica to every moment of time and space ever?" He asked her smugly.

"Well that would be lovely, dear, but we can't, because it's completely impossible!" She told him condescendingly.

"Well, no, you see, it's not," He tapped her forehead with his fingertip. "It's _almost_ completely impossible. One spark is all we need."

"For what?" River asked.

"Big bang two." He concluded with a smile, blissfully unable to see what was coming up behind him, though felt the sudden panic coming from Amy. He didn't have enough time, none of them did, to stop the lethally fast beam coming towards him from the Dalek.

* * *

_Sorry, it's been ages again :( _

_My only excuse is that work and my friends demands that I have a social life keep getting in the way, and the damn error when trying to publish, but I'm trying to work my way around it. I am **determined** to finish this before Series 6 begins. _

_Love you all_

_xxx_


	21. Chapter 21

"**EXTERMINATE, EXTERMINATE!"** The Dalek screeched as soon as the shot hit home on the Doctor's arm. He fell to the floor, shaking as he felt the claw of death working through from the shot wound to his whole body. It hurt like agony, and he knew he wasn't the only one feeling it.

"Get back!" Rory ordered. "River, get back _now_!" He pushed the doubled over Amy behind the wall and opened his hand, instantly firing two shots at the Dalek that was still moving towards them. For a few endless seconds the creature kept moving towards them, menace still gleaming in its one eye, its stone arms still extended, but eventually it slowed, slightly rotated, and stopped.

"Doctor, it's me, River," River said, holding the Time Lord's head as he shook, his eyes searching, looking for Amy. "Doctor, can you hear me?" He stretched his arm to his right, where he knew Amy would be. "What is it, what do you need?" River asked.

"Amy." He whispered, trying not to cry out. He watched as Rory turned round, unobscuring the Doctor's view of her. She was doubled over in pain, a faint sheen of sweat across her brow and her jaw clenched as she tried hard not to cry out. She stumbled forward towards the Doctor and landed with a thump on the floor beside him. Their hands touched, and they clung to each other for support. The pain eased slightly, but only just.

"I'm here, Doctor." Amy whispered, moving one hand to take River's place, caressing his face as he shook beneath her.

"Amy..." He whispered with a soft smile. He knew what was coming next, he knew what had to be done, he'd seen it not so long ago. But right now, just for a few seconds, he let himself lie there and enjoy it, enjoy everything he was feeling, because right now, this was the best he would ever feel. Nothing would ever feel as good as the blistering pain coursing through his veins, because that pain meant that he had Amy. For a few more seconds he had Amy, and he would happily take this pain forever rather than be separated from her.

If only it were that simple.

He took her hand and pressed it to his lips, feebly kissing her one last time. He looked up to her as he felt her panic, her realisation of what was about to happen.

"No." She said, holding tightly to his hand, clutching to him. "We'll stop this, this isn't happening."

"I'm sorry." He told her, and she shook her head, a few tears dropping from her face and onto his.

"Don't go." She whimpered, determined, but understanding that she was defeated. The Doctor had his reasons, he always did, everything he did was for a reason, even if she couldn't understand. She shook her head again, squeezing her eyes shut, before hastily leaning down and pressing her lips to his. One last kiss.

They parted, and she reluctantly let go of his hand. He didn't wait. He hurriedly pressed buttons on the Vortex manipulator, and with seemingly no hesitation he vanished from sight, the roar of white static rushing through the room, blinding them for a second before leaving them with nothing.

Amy gasped, pressing a hand to her chest, and Rory looked down at her in worry.

"I can't," She begun. "I can't."

"Can't what?" He asked.

"He's gone!" She told him, the shock of the loss evident on her face. Rory reached down to place a hand on her shoulder, comforting her, but she didn't feel it. All she could feel was the sudden absence in her, the Doctor's presence, their comforting bond that had been residing in her now vanished, leaving her on her own.

"Where'd he go?" River demanded, standing up and looking at the empty spot where he had been. "Damn it, he could be anywhere."

"He went downstairs, twelve minutes ago." Amy told her quietly.

"SHOW ME!" The woman yelled, and Amy looked up at the woman, not wanting to explain.

"River, he died." She told her simply. River looked at her, unable to take in the information, and opened her mouth to speak.

"**SYSTEMS RESTORING, YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!"** She heard behind her, and they all jerked out of their stupor. Rory pointed his hand back at the creature.

"You've got to move, that things coming back to life." He instructed them.

"You go to the Doctor; I'll be right with you." River told them, stone faced, determination so fierce that both Amy and Rory found themselves moving and leaving her behind. They trusted River to be able to deal with the Dalek.

"**YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!" **The creature yelled at River, but she held her ground.

"Not yet." She told it. "Your systems are still restoring which means your shield density is compromised." Her voice shook, but no other sign of weakness showed as she took her gun from its holster. "One Alpha Meason burst through your eye stalk would kill you stone dead."

"**REPORTS INDICATE YOU WILL SHOW MERCY!"** The Dalek replied, halting its movement towards her. **"YOU ARE AN ASSOCIATE OF THE DOCTOR'S!"**

"I'm River Song." She replied smugly as she pointed the gun to her opponent. "Check your records again."

She saw it think.

"**MERCY."** It said.

"Say it again?"

"**MERCY?"** It repeated, this time questioning.

"One more time." She returned.

"**MERCY!" **It screamed.


	22. Chapter 22

The Doctor landed with a rush of static fifteen minutes before.

It felt surreal, this whole crossing timelines business. He never quite got used to meeting himself – he tried not to make a habit of it. Sometimes it was by accident, others it was by necessity; this time he had no choice.

He watched blearily as events unfolded before him. He saw Amy gasp, felt the pain ricochet into her and back. It hurt every time. And then she dropped, her knees buckling beneath her in shock and pain as she saw the dying Doctor. Rory caught her before she fell to the floor.

He wanted to go to her, he wanted to stretch out his hand, to touch her, just touch her, to ease her pain, but the flinch of movement that he made in that direction didn't work, the concept of one foot in front of the other far too complicated, and instead he found himself falling down the stairs, falling and falling, until he found a step big enough to land on. It didn't hurt; a pinprick in comparison to the wound, to the claw of death.

He closed his eyes and held himself still. He had to, he remembered how it went last time.

"Doctor, can you do something?" He heard Rory plead desperately. The man who waited; he deserved the girl far more that the Doctor did, he could see that. He could have her now, too, now that he was almost gone.

"Shhh..." He heard the Doctor murmur. "I'm going to make it better, okay? You trust me?"

A few seconds later he felt the pain ease. Amy was asleep, and he smiled ever so slightly. It was reassuring to know that she wasn't in pain, that she didn't have to feel this anymore. He heard his past self explain to Rory what he had done. Rory didn't understand, didn't accept that it was the kindest thing to do, but he knew it was. That was something.

He began to count in his head. Of course at the time he hadn't been paying attention to how long everything took, how long between the end of the sentence and when the dying Doctor had sat up and spoke to him, but it had registered somewhere. Time Lord's are always counting their time, minutes, seconds, milliseconds.

It was time.

He inhaled, drawing up his energy, and quickly sat up, grasping his younger self for support. He repeated his words from earlier, his own instructions, how long he had, what to do, where to go, and a few key words to spark the idea for the master plan. All business; no pleasure. Hopefully he would have time to say farewell, to hold Amy's hand one last time. He might not, he was growing weaker by the second, but his main priority had to be saving them all, saving Amy. A goodbye could wait.

He dropped back, exhaling and concentrating on letting his body run on automatic. His breathing slowed, his pulse dropped, and for the casual observer he looked as dead as he could be.

Next came the hard bit, the worst of all. It had baffled him before; unable to understand how Amy couldn't feel his future self any more. Then it had clicked. He had to break it.

So few Time Lords ever bonded with humans in the way that he and Amy had, so little was known of this unstable link. It couldn't be as strong as a link from one Time Lord to another of their kind, and the Doctor thanked Rasilon for this. He knew, or had at least heard; that links could be broken in times when it was deemed necessary – if the pain was too great to continue, if the connection was far more a hindrance than a connection. It could be broken, the tie reversed, leaving the two beings to go on their separate ways, however long that may turn out to be.

Their link was weak; the biological compatibility of human and Time Lord just enough to forge the link, but brittle enough to be snapped if enough pressure were to be forced onto it...

He felt it snap. It wasn't painful, it was the absence of pain, the absence of all. He felt her vanish instantly, the warmth and comfort that he had loved so dearly now gone, leaving him cold and alone. No doubt Amy would feel this too. But it was necessary. Everything was necessary. Because of this she could live, she _would_ live. She would be free to save the universe, as would he, in their own separate times.

He lay there and waited. Two and a half minutes till he could move, till he could drag himself to the Pandorica and get to work. And if he was very lucky, there might even be enough time to save the whole of reality.


	23. Chapter 23

Amy and Rory knew exactly where they were going. They followed back the hallway, running in their haste to find the Doctor. They knew it made little difference, they knew exactly what they were going to find, they knew finding his body where they had left him before wouldn't change what had happened. But they were still running. Amy reached there first; her urgency to see the Doctor overpowering Rory's excelling speed.

They stopped at the top of the stairs, looking down to where they knew the Doctor to be, but found themselves surprised. Where they had left him, his body, was now empty, nothing but Rory's coat to ever mark that he had been there.

"How could he have moved?" Rory asked Amy. "He was there." They both ran down the stairs to his coat. "Doctor?" He called. "DOCTOR!"

"But he was dead?" Amy asked, not allowing herself to give into the blossoming hope within her. Or the sickening dread, the perverse idea that someone might have stolen his body. She was clinging to what she already knew, refusing to do anything else.

"Who told you that?" River asked casually as she joined them, walking down the steps.

"He did!" Amy replied.

"Rule one:" River told them arrogantly. "The Doctor lies."

"What?" Amy asked desperately.

"Where's the Dalek?" Rory asked the woman.

"It died." Was her solemn reply. She reached the foot of the stairs, not glancing at where the Doctor had been, and walked into the Pandorica exhibit, closely followed by Amy and Rory.

"DOCTOR!" Amy called as she saw. They began to run towards the Pandorica, a mixture of shock and amazement as they saw the Doctor sitting inside the box. He was strapped in, all ready, but his head was lolling against the inside; he didn't have much time left, he was weakened. River ran up to him and placed her hands on his head, testing his alertness, his pulse, while Amy stopped a foot away.

"Why did he tell us he was dead?" Rory asked them.

"We were a diversion." She told him grimly. "As long as the Dalek was chasing us, he could work down here."

"Doctor, can you hear me?" River asked. "What were you doing?"

Amy walked up and hesitantly took his hand, still reeling from his lack of presence. It felt strange to touch him, yet not feel him. She couldn't feel his emotions, his pain. She didn't understand.

Rory looked up to the glass ceiling, seeing the massiev exploding TARDIS high above, and could see the sky turning dark. "What's happening?" He asked.

"Reality is collapsing, it's speeding up," She told him. "Just look at this room."

"Where'd everything go?" Rory asked, looking at all of the now empty displays.

"History's being erased, time is running out." She explained simply. Turning back to the Doctor she took his face again and shook it gently. "Doctor, what were you doing? Tell us!" Her eyes widened as she felt the Doctor wake up under her hands, and Amy leant forward. "Doctor!"

He struggled for breath, and Amy clutched his hand tighter. "Big... Bang... Two..." He breathed.

"The big bang? That's the beginning of the universe, right?" Rory asked.

"What, and big bang two is the bang that brings us back?" Amy questioned. "Is that what you mean?"

The Doctor nodded.

"Oh..." River exhaled, understanding.

"What?" Amy demanded.

"The TARDIS is still burning, it's burning at every point in history. If you threw the Pandorica right into the heart of the fire..."

"Then what?" Amy pressed, glancing alternately from River to the Doctor.

"Then let there be light." She surmised. "The light from the Pandorica would explode everywhere at once, just like he said." She looked at the weakened old man.

"And that would work?" Amy asked, trusting in the Doctor, though still incredulous. "That would bring everything back?"

"A restoration field powered by an exploding TARDIS happening at every moment in history; oh that's brilliant." She told them. "It might even work." She took the Doctor's sonic screwdriver and scanned it over the vortex manipulator on his wrist and along the wires fed through it. "He's wired the vortex manipulator into the box."

"Why?" Amy asked, her full attention on the woman.

"So he can take it with him." She said, and they both looked at the Doctor in astonishment. "He's going to fly the Pandorica into the heart of the explosion."

A few minutes passed, and River left Amy to sit with the Doctor. River was the Doctor's future, would have been the Doctor's future, but right now it was Amy who the Doctor cared most about. Leaving them alone, she walked over to Rory.

"Are you alright?" She asked him.

"I'm fine." He said gruffly. It didn't matter how he felt. "You?"

"I've had better days." She replied, looking to the box. They both stayed in uncomfortable silence for a minute.

"So what happens here, then?" Rory asked, and River looked back to him. "Big Bang two? What happens to us?"

"We all wake up where we ought to be, none of this ever happened and we don't remember it." She said, looking at Amy.

"River," Amy called over, not looking round. "Tell me he comes back too."

She hesitated before answering. "The Doctor will be the heart of the explosion. All the cracks in time will close, but he'll be on the wrong side. All memory of him will be purged from the universe." Her voice cracked. "He will never have been born."

"Amy..." The Doctor wheezed, and Amy sat up.

"I'm here." She told him reassuringly, moving so she was in his line of vision. She squeezed his hand and placed her other hand on his arm. She was there for him.

"I'm sorry." He breathed out, and she shook her head.

"You have nothing to be sorry for." She said stubbornly. "We couldn't stop it."

"Not... that." He told her, squeezing her hand and looking in her eyes. "I broke it."

"Broke what?" She asked him, confused and curious. He was intent on telling her, and she was determined to hear it.

"Us," He told her, spitting the word out. "I broke the link."

"What?"

"Our link, empathic connection..." He trailed off, leaning his head back in exhaustion.

"What about it, Doctor?" Amy asked, curiosity burning. She had felt it vanish earlier, felt its absence, but she hadn't been awake to feel it actually go.

"I couldn't stand..." He breathed. "I couldn't stand seeing you in so much pain. I broke it."

She shook her head, feeling a tear drop from her eyes. He shouldn't have done that; the absence was harder to bear than the pain. "Don't worry about me, okay?" She said, placing a hand on his cheek. "I'm fine."

He looked her square in the eyes and smiled. "Amy Pond, the girl who waited... all night in your garden." He reminisced. "Was it worth it?"

"Shut up, of course it was." She tried to crack a smile, but failed.

"You asked me why I was taking you with me, and I said... 'no reason'" He chuckled softly. "I was lying."

"It's not important." She told him.

"Yeah, it's the most important thing left in the universe," He told her. "It's why I'm doing this." He paused, weighing her reaction, and when she stayed silent, patiently listening, he continued. "Amy, your house, it's too big. Big, empty house, just you."

"And Aunt Sharon." She reminded him gently.

"Where were your Mum and Dad?" He asked her, trying to force her to think, just to remember. She had done it before. "Where was everybody who lived in that big house?"

"I lost my Mum and Dad." She told him, tears in her eyes. It was a sensitive subject for her, not one she thought of often.

"What happened to them? Where did they go?"

"I-" She struggled. "I don't know." She said in surprise.

"It's okay; it's not your fault." He told her gently.

"I don't remember." She concluded in slow realisation.

"A crack in time in the wall of your bedroom," He explained. "And it's been eating away at your life for a long time now. Amy Pond, all alone, the girl who didn't make sense." He looked in her eyes in an expression that could only be deemed as proud wonder. "How could I resist?"

"How could I just forget?" She asked him.

"Nothing is ever forgotten, not really," The Doctor smiled. "But you have to try."

The room around them rumbled, the building quaking and the light became orange, bathing them both in fiery ambience.

"Doctor, it's speeding up!" River called over.

"There's going to be a very, very big bang," He explained hastily. "Big Bang Two. Try to remember your family and they'll be there."

"How can I remember them if they never existed?" She asked, her voice shaking.

"Because... you're special," He smiled, and Amy leant in closer to hear him over the rumbles. "That crack in your wall, all that time, the universe pouring into your head. You brought Rory back, you can bring them back too. Just remember, and they'll be there."

"You won't." She said, gritting her teeth to stop herself from crying.

"You'll have your family back." He told her as he carefully detached himself from her and gently pushing her back. "You won't need your imaginary friend anymore." He gasped as he felt the restraints in the box come down on him, securing his wrists, his chest, his shoulders.

Amy stumbled backwards, aware of the danger of the room around her, but eyes only for the Doctor. "I love you." She told him quietly, her words only just carrying across the noise and over to him, but he heard. He smiled at her.

"Love you too." He replied, smiling contentedly as the doors began to close. He spared a glance to Rory, giving a barely perceptible nod to the man. They both understood. The Doctor's time had run out; it was Rory's time to shine.

Amy felt an arm wind round her shoulders. She didn't look up to see whose it was, instinctively recognising it instead. She grabbed the hand of her best friend, clutching it for comfort, allowing herself to relax a little into Rory's chest. He was comfortable, familiar. But she didn't look up at him. Her eyes never left the Doctor's as the doors of the Pandorica sealed shut, separating them for the rest of the universe.

The three of them watched the Pandorica begin to move, rotating as if alive, before River pushed them all down with a yell. Smoke began to seep out of the box, and white static lightning flashed as the Vortex Manipulator worked into overdrive. Suddenly it left the ground, shooting into the air and smashing through the glass ceiling, up into the sky and towards the false sun. The Doctor felt it as the box begun to sink into the explosion, felt his connection with his TARDIS, felt its pain, and for a few split seconds felt like a God. He could see every second of every inch of everywhere as the time vortex streamed through his head. He was omniscient, and he was powerless; trapped in a box as he watched the universe explode.


	24. Chapter 24

Well. That wasn't how he had expected it to end.

The roaring of Big Bang Two was suddenly drowned out by silence. And he wasn't strapped into the Pandorica anymore. And he wasn't in pain. He was lying down.

Not silence, he realised, just quiet. He could hear the gentle thrum of engines, and far off talking. He was in the TARDIS, it struck him; he was in his wonderful TARDIS.

"Oh, okay," He laughed nervously. "I escaped then, brilliant! Love it when I do that." He furrowed his brow in confusion, looking down at himself. "Legs, yes," He smiled. "Bow tie – cool." He grabbed it with his hand to make sure. He moved it to his head, checking to see if he was wearing anything up there, but found himself disappointed. "I can buy a fez."

His hearing finally adapted, or he finally began to pay attention as he recognised what was being said around him. "Now the beach, the beach is the best."

It was his own voice. Somehow. He looked round and could see him and Amy standing around the console; Amy looking sad, her back to the Doctor, who was anxiously keeping an eye on her as he piloted the TARDIS. He watched as the Scottish girl spoke.

"Hmmm? Why?"

"Automatic sands!" He heard himself say excitedly. Amy repeated his words questioningly, slight curiosity beginning to melt through her depression. He remembered it sadly. He hated seeing her like this.

"It's automated, totally. Cleans up the lolly sticks all by itself." His past self explained. The Doctor shook his head, trying to work it out.

"No, hang on, that's last week when we went to Space Florida." He told himself, looking carefully. He hadn't been there last week, he hadn't seen his future self standing on the deck of the TARDIS, he was sure of it. Amy was even looking in his general direction, but hadn't reacted at all to him. "I'm rewinding, my time stream, it's unravelling." He told himself, blinking as he thought it through. "Erasing." He looked behind him and saw the bright light of the familiar crack scarily close to him, pressed into the console screen. "Closing." He looked without surprise as it appeared to fade away, sinking into the cool glass. "Hello Universe, goodbye Doctor."

He turned round, suddenly desperate to change his fate. "Amy!" He called, hoping against hope, though knowing that there was little possibility of anything happening. But he was in luck. He watched as Amy turned, slowly lowering her glasses and looking directly at him.

This development stunned him into silence. He didn't move, instead just watched as Amy's eyes drifted over him. She couldn't see him, but yet she had turned...

"Amy..." He whispered as he suddenly felt himself weaken, and a bright flash of white light take over his vision.

* * *

He stumbled backwards, thankfully remaining on his feet this time round.

He took in his surroundings, the unexpected street, the red brick houses and the grey tarmac road. The sky was blue, and leaves were green on the trees. He was on Earth, his favourite existing planet.

He turned around to see Amy again, her back to him, a spring in her step as she crossed the road and headed straight for a cat perched on a wall.

"Three weeks ago, when she put the card in the window." He remembered, desperate to make use of his chance. "AMY!" He yelled. "I need to tell you something!"

She looked up, more of a glance this time though, and looked straight back down to the cat. How terrible that a cat claimed Amy's attention more successfully than he did. But he smiled anyway. "She can hear me." He congratulated himself. "But if she can hear me..." He trailed off, his smile fading as he looked around, seeing the familiar crack etched into the pavement, fading back as his vision filled with the same bright white light.

* * *

"Good luck everyone, behave!" He heard himself yell. He was perched on a rock, green mossy rocks. "Do not let that girl open her eyes. Amy, later." He watched, wincing, as he saw himself leave the terrified Amy behind, blind and effectively alone in the forest. He was back on the Byzantian.

He crept towards Amy, smiling at the sight of her. He had thought he would never see her again, never see her eyes light up as she smiled, never hold her hands, or kiss her again. He was being given a final gift.

He stood over her for a few seconds, admiring the view, before leaning down and taking her hands. He felt her react to his touch, her fingers slightly squeezing back; good, she could feel him, this could make all the difference.

He chose his words carefully. "Amy, you need to start trusting me, it's never been more important."

She winced. "But you don't always tell me the truth." She replied stubbornly. He smiled softly. She could hear him too.

"If I always told you the truth I wouldn't need you to trust me." He replied. He looked at her in awe, taking in her stubborn little frown marks that he could see etched in her brow. He was so unbelievably happy that he had been brought back to this minute – he could help her when she was scared, he could comfort her. What more could he ask for?

"Doctor," She whispered. "The crack in my wall; how can it be here?"

"I dunno yet, but I'm working it out." He told her. He heard the whirr of his sonic screwdriver and looked round to see his past self fiddling with the screwdriver. He needed to be careful, he couldn't arouse suspicion. But he realised what he could do... this minute was more crucial than he realised. "Now, listen," He told her. "Remember what I told you when you were seven."

"What did you tell me?" She asked, and he pressed his forehead to hers in frustration. He didn't know yet, of course he didn't, he wasn't there yet; but he guessed it wouldn't be too long before he arrived.

"No," He whispered. "No. That's not the point. You have to remember." He looked at her closed eyelids, trying to convey his message across. He placed a hand round the back of her head, cupping her neck. It would be so easy to kiss her now, to close that gap, he was so close. But he couldn't. Not yet. He couldn't completely resist though. He pressed a single kiss to her forehead, one that could be easily misconstrued as comfort or friendship.

He wondered if this was how it started, this single kiss on her forehead planting the idea of _them_ in her head. She did kiss him only hours later. If that was what started it, so be it. It was worth every second.

"Remember what?" She asked, but he found himself unable to answer, the light was beginning to draw him back again. "Remember what? Doctor?"

* * *

_I might've gotten very over excited at this scene when I watched it first time round. Very very._


	25. Chapter 25

The Doctor landed with a flash of static in a place that was filled with familiarity.

"Amy's house," He said as he checked his watch. "When she was seven." This was the first night they met, but judging by the exact local time, which was half eleven at night, this was shortly after he had left her. A twinge of guilt passed through him. "The night she waited."

He walked through the house, barely stopping to glare at the sixth room, and exited through the front door. What he was here for was in the garden.

He could see evidence of where he had been just a few hours before, the crushed shed an all too harsh symbol of how he had crashed into little Amelia Pond's life and left her behind with the ruins of broken promises. He stood over her sleeping body, his sad old eyes lamenting. Of all he had done in all of his lives, of all the people who had died because of him, of all those he had disappointed; this somehow felt the worst.

"The girl who waited." He spoke softly, careful not to wake her. He knelt down carefully and hooked one arm behind her knees, one behind her back, and picked her up, cradling her against his chest. She slept through the movement, tired out by the evening's exertions.

He placed her in bed, removing her hat, coat and wellies before tucking her under the duvet. He felt protective over this little Amelia, knowing all the troubles that his Amy had been through: the four psychiatrists, the years of exclusion. Maybe this time round she'd be okay.

He sunk back into the chair next to her bed, suddenly exhausted. He watched her little sleeping face, astounded that she had slept through him carrying her, and suddenly felt depressed. She wasn't alert to anything happening around her, let alone the invisible man in her bedroom.

"Funny," He sighed. "I thought if you could hear me I could hang on somehow. Silly me... Silly old Doctor." He sat there and looked at her, pondering what to say. This wasn't his Amy, this wasn't the Amy he had grown to love so dearly, the one it hurt almost painfully to be apart from. It was like River had said, oh so very long ago, a lifetime ago – she wasn't done yet.

He had made his goodbyes to _his_ Amy, now he had to do the same for Amelia. Perhaps he could finally make amends.

"When you wake up, you're going to have a Mum and Dad." He told her with a smile. "And you won't even remember me..." He allowed the smile to fade. "Well, you'll remember me a little. I'll be a story in your head." He sighed. "But that's okay, we're all stories in the end." He smiled reassuringly, reaching out to gently pat her shoulder. "Just make it a good one, ey? Because it was, you know, it was the best." He told her with a smile, remembering all of the times he shared with Amy, every smile and every tear. "Amy Pond, and the daft old man who stole a magic box." He smirked – it really did sound like a story. Soon that would be all it ever was. Unless...

"Did I ever tell you I stole it?" He asked the unresponsive child. "I did. Well, I borrowed it; I always meant to give it back." He smiled, thinking of his beautiful ship, his closest friend. "Oh, that box, Amelia, you'll dream of that box." He knew it was true; psychic connections with the TARDIS never just died, and especially not with a girl as remarkable as this, a girl who grew up with a crack in the skin of the Universe in her bedroom wall. "It'll never leave you; big and little at the same time; brand new and _ancient_, and the bluest blue ever." He glanced out of the window as he heard thunder, smiling at his own words. He knew how the TARDIS felt, his body brand new yet he had never felt older, his very bones aching and his soul crying out for a billion losses. He was old. Perhaps it was time for someone else to save the Universe now.

"Oh, and the times we had, Amy." He said, half speaking to his own Amy again. "Woulda had. Never had." He sighed, swallowing down tears. He would go out with dignity; the little girl would not know he was crying. "In your dreams they'll still be there," He chuckled softly, happy to simply not be forgotten. "The Doctor and Amy Pond... and the days that never came."

He looked behind him as he heard the storm rumble again, but knew it was more than before. The crack was glowing, and he watched as it sunk back into the wall, throwing white light across the room before leaving him alone with the girl. Had he missed his chance to say all he had to say? The crack was gone, he had seconds to spare.

"The cracks are closing." He said aloud, before wincing at himself. He shouldn't waste valuable seconds on science. He turned back to her quickly, forcing himself to do what was right, to finish his promise to Rory, to allow Amy and the Centurion a happy life together; the girl and boy who waited – a match obvious to anyone. He would give them this parting present. He leant across, careful to steady himself so he wouldn't fall onto her, and whispered in her ear. "Live well." He told her, and planted a chaste kiss on her forehead. "Love Rory." He swept back her hair, taking her in one last time, remembering his future version of her. He would miss her, if there was anything left of him. "Bye bye, Pond." He told her, lingering a few seconds longer before straightening up and looking towards the wall where the crack had been. He didn't belong here anymore.

He thought carefully, weighing up his immediate options. Presumably he would keep reversing, following his own timeline back for who knows how long, before he eventually wasted away. He could see everyone he had ever loved again, his family, his friends, Gallifrey, once more. But he shook his head. He didn't look back; he never looked back because he daren't.

It would be too painful seeing it all again. He had left it all behind a long time ago, accepted his decisions and lived with them.

He took a deep breath as he entrusted all of himself unto the child behind him. She was his only chance of him ever being alive again; her dreams would harbour him forever. He thought of all the adventures they would still have. That girl had the whole of time and space running through her head, into her dreams. The whole universe as her playground, and he would be there, her imaginary friend.

Smiling, he stepped forwards, letting the crack engulf him. He was gone.

He never saw Amelia sit up briefly, the little girl feeling a sudden absence of something. Sleepy and bleary eyed she lay back down, ready to return to her dream world, to explore the universe in a little blue box.

* * *

_So I've been reading about series 5 on t'interwebz, and I've found things that genuinely scared me. All through the series there are moments where the Doctor and Amy look scared at something they can see, usually out of shot, and then something will distract them, like someone talking, and it's forgotten. You'd've picked up on it, but then thought nothing more of it, **like they do!** The freakiest one is in The Big Bang at around 13.30. Keep an eye out for what's behind the sarcofogi. Go have a look-see.  
Series 5 was apparently way more clever than I realised. _

_Hang on, Darlings, not long now :D  
_


	26. Chapter 26

Amy woke up with a start, confused by the soft covers and plushy pillows beneath her head. She sat up, looking around her, struck suddenly by an unexplainable clash of the familiar and the eerily unreal.

She shook her head. She had just been dreaming again. She had always dreamt like this, since she was tiny, bright vivid dreams of the entire universe as her backyard, and often woke up unsure of where she was. It always felt as if she had fell asleep somewhere different, somewhere far away, and was confused each time she woke up in her own bed.

She ignored it, as usual, and looked to her cupboard, staring at the big white dress that hung on the door. She had hoped that by now she would be sure. She had hoped that by the morning of her wedding she would know one way or another that she wanted to marry Rory. The sight of that dress shouldn't now be filling her with a feeling of sickening dread.

"It's just cold feet." She told herself, ignoring the slight feeling of claustrophobia that she could feel coming over her. "Completely normal. Everyone gets it."

She was startled by footsteps coming into the room, and gasped in shock as a woman entered with a tray of food.

"Morning!" The woman said cheerfully, though stopping short when she saw the confused look on Amy's face.

"You're my Mum." Amy said aloud in wonder. "Oh my God, you're my Mum!" She whispered.

"Of course I'm your Mum," The woman said, her Scottish accent stronger than Amy's. "What's the matter with you?" She looked down at the tray. "And this is your breakfast... which your father made, so feel free to chuck it out of the window if it's an atrocity." She looked back up to her daughter. "Downstairs? Ten minutes? Big day." She placed the tray on the bed and almost skipped from the room, her gangly figure apparent even through her fluffy pink dressing gown.

"Of course she's my Mum." She said to herself in confusion. "Why is that surprising?" She shook herself after it, and after casting a hesitant glance over the dress, she followed her Mum downstairs. She could hear someone talking through the kitchen door, a man's voice, a strangely familiar one. She pushed open the door and saw him, a person equally as baffling as her Mum had been a minute before. It was her Dad. The tiny man, with an ever growing bald patch and an undone collar was her father. He looked up at her with a smile.

"Ah, Amelia," He greeted her with an adorable Scottish accent. "I fear I may have been using the same joke book as the best man."

She squealed in delight, ignoring his words and instead flinging herself onto him, wrapping her arms around his neck. "You're my Dad!" She cried. "You're my tiny little Dad!"

"Now why are you behaving like you've never seen us before?" Her Mum asked as she walked into the room and manoeuvred round her daughter to place a tie round her husband's neck.

"I dunno, it's just..." She trailed off, unable to answer, unable to put into words what she was feeling. "Never mind, breakfast?"

"I made you breakfast, your mother took it upstairs." Her Dad said somewhat indignantly as Amy and her Mum exchanged glances.

"What do you want, darling?" Her Mum asked, rooting in the cupboards.

"Oh, come on now-" Her Father began, but was cut off by his wife.

"It's Amy's big day, so breakfast is Amy's choice." She told him stubbornly.

Amy felt a shiver run down her spine. There was something in her words; something the Scottish woman just said had struck her with a sense of déjà vu, as if those words had been of significance at some point. "What did you say?" She asked quickly.

"What do you want? We have toast, sardines, cereal..." Her Mum reeled off as she looked through the cupboards. "What do you fancy?"

"What do I want?" Amy asked, and opened the fridge and freezer simultaneously, attempting to shake off whatever it was that had struck her before. A box caught her eye, and she pulled it out. "Fish fingers."

"For breakfast?" Her Mum queried.

"And that." She said, pointing out a tub just beside her Mother's hand in the cupboard.

"Custard?" She asked again. "Fish fingers and custard?"

"Yup." She said, turning the knob on the oven. "You asked me what I fancied, and _that_ is what I want. Problem?"

"No, not at all," Her Mum replied, clearly intent on keeping Amy happy today. "Fish fingers and custard it is." She started to mix the custard, absent-mindedly passing Amy a mug of tea, and Amy sat down to wait for breakfast as her Mother fixed it.

She curled her hands around the warm mug, breathing on it slowly to cool it and took a sip. It was still hot, and she winced as it slightly scalded her mouth and put it back down on the table, hands still around it. She tuned out her father still talking about the speech to her Mum, instead looking out of the kitchen window to the front garden.

It was beautiful, she had always loved the garden; wide and long, variations of shrubbery and earth, flowers and trees, the rose filled archway and the tall bushes, the rusting swing set and the old shed at the bottom of the garden. She loved that shed. As a child she had spent years of her life playing beside it with her imaginary friend, exploring the undergrowth, dreaming that it was the stars, an alien planet, a space ship. Those days were gone now, but it was strange that even as an adult that longing to explore, and the strange ache that she felt as she looked out to that old shed still remained, and had even transformed into something not quite tangible, but very there. On the morning of her wedding she was looking out towards her imaginary games of far off worlds; her escapism.

"Your tea will get cold, pet." She heard her Mum say, seconds before she obscured Amy's view of the window, sitting at the other end of the kitchen table.

"Right." Amy mumbled, taking a sip to find that it now was lukewarm. She had been daydreaming for a while. She often did that, went off into her own little world for ages, not realising until someone interrupted her.

"Are you alright?" Her Mum asked her, looking at her with worry.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" Amy replied, trying to keep her tone light and carefree.

"You're crying."

Amy took a hand from the mug and touched her cheek. She was indeed crying; she hadn't noticed. "I'm fine." She told her Mother, wiping it away. The woman simply looked at her, the look of worry subtly vanishing to be replaced with a kind, understanding smile.

"The night before mine and your father's wedding, I was so nervous I threw up." She told her.

Amy placed a hand under her chin. "Really?"

"Yeah, horrible case of the nerves." She said. "I got the idea in my head that I couldn't marry him, that I wasn't ready; I almost called it off."

"What happened?" Amy asked. She hadn't heard this story before.

"Your Aunt Sharon reminded me how much I loved him." She said with a smile, reaching over and squeezing Amy's hand. "And when I walked down that aisle, when I saw him at the end waiting for me, I knew I could do it."

Amy nodded, looking down at her tea. "I do love Rory." She replied, knowing it was true, but saying it felt strange, like there was something more to it.

"I know you do, pet," Her Mum replied. "And when you walk down that aisle and you see him there waiting for you, you'll know it's the right thing."

Amy nodded again, this time with more confidence. "It's just cold feet."

"Perfectly normal." Her mother replied.

"Everybody gets it." Amy said determinedly.

"Exactly." Was the reply. They sat for a few more seconds in companionable silence before her Mother got up and went to the oven, fetching Amy's breakfast. Within half a minute it was on the table in front of her, and Amy stared at it with a strange look on her face as her mother watched in bemusement. "Aren't you going to eat it?"

Amy grinned without confidence and took a fish finger, dipping it into the custard. She stared at it for a few seconds, watching as the goopy yellow liquid dripped from the end, before sticking it in her mouth and taking a bite. She tested it, taking slow bites before swallowing it down.

"Well?" Her Mum asked. "Any good?"

She grimaced. "No, it's disgusting." She told her, re-dipping the end in the custard and finishing the stick. "But I like it."

* * *

_Finally! I can have a bit more fun with the story now - less rules about what has to happen, I can play with what happens. I had fun with this chapter, expanding on her parents etc. Hope you lot are all still enjoying it!_


	27. Chapter 27

Amy nodded and agreed her way through breakfast as her father went through the finer points of his speech. She didn't really pay attention, too intent on finishing her breakfast and retiring herself to her room to think. He didn't notice her indifference, and her mother put it down to cold feet. Eventually she finished, polishing the bowl of its last scrap of custard with the end of the last fish finger, and excused herself, climbing the flight of stairs to her room and closing the door behind her.

Something was wrong. She knew it. This was more than cold feet; she hadn't felt like this yesterday. Sure, at some points she had been filled with dread at the idea of the marriage, but this morning it felt like so much more, like there was something _huge_ she was missing.

And more than that, she felt like _she_ was wrong, her very presence in this house felt odd, like she had indeed fallen asleep in the stars, somewhere far across the universe, in the dreams of her imaginations, and she had woken up in the real world, disorientated and confused.

"Grow up, Amy." She told herself. She wasn't 7 anymore, she shouldn't still be having dreams of her imaginary Doctor; the only childish dream she should be indulging today should be her fairytale wedding.

She took a hesitant step towards the wardrobe that held her wedding dress, and extended a hand, tersely stroking the satin of the skirt. It was beautiful, yes, and everyone agreed that she looked lovely in it, but she didn't like it; the very sight of it scared her, made her turn around, block out the image from her mind. But she couldn't keep doing that; today was the day that she had to put it on.

"Cold feet, just cold feet." Amy muttered, but still allowed herself to look away from the dress, far across the room, to where her dolls from her childhood were lined up. She had taken them out yesterday in an attempt to de-clutter the room, to pack up her childhood and childish dreams, to distract herself from her impending wedding but found herself unable to finish, leaving them out, now more obvious and obtrusive than ever. She walked over to the collection, turning an eye over them all, before picking up one. It was one of the later dolls, one of the Raggedy Doctor, the closest in its likeness of him; she had even captured his jaw line, a feat if there ever was one. She turned it around in her eyes, examining it all, appreciating its details and allowed herself to smile; she seemed to have years of happy memories from the Raggedy Doctor, her imaginary friend, from playing make believe in the garden, from her dreams. But she also had a lifetime of disappointment. He never came to whisk her away from here.

She looked to the bed, remembering. It had been fourteen years before, when she was seven, that she had been kneeling by the bed praying to Santa to fix the crack on her wall when the imaginary games had begun. She had thought she had heard something, like the wind but stronger, out in the garden. She retraced her footsteps, walking to the window and looking out. She remembered going out and playing with the Raggedy Doctor, feeding him, and then he had left, not even leaving a crushed shed behind him. She had told her Aunt, her parents about it, showed them where he had landed but there was no evidence to prove it, the shed left intact where he had crashed. He never returned like he had promised, and eventually she had gotten on with her life, found Rory, and moved on.

'_Clearly not'_ a little voice inside her said as she looked back across her collection of dolls, and the one still in her hand. If she had moved on she would've thrown these away a long time ago. Was it only nostalgia that was forcing her to hold onto them?

She looked now to the wall where the crack had been. One thing her parents couldn't explain was how the crack had disappeared in one night, how the monsters smile that she had been so terrified of, that her parents had promised time and time again to fix had snapped shut, leaving nothing behind. She walked over to it peered closely at it. The draught had gone too, as had the voice, leaving Amy feeling empty and alone.

She was feeling it again, ever stronger, that empty and alone feeling, that feeling that said she didn't belong here, and more than ever that feeling that told her _something _was missing. She reached out her hand and stroked it, the long curve that was no longer there but the exact positioning of it etched into her memory. It wasn't there, nothing there, but she knew that only meant something was missing.

She picked up her mobile and called Rory. He was the only person who had ever indulged her fantasies of the Doctor as a child, the only one who had let her believe in him, and for some reason she felt as if he might be able to help her, to work out what was wrong.

"Hello!" He sung to her, and she could hear him brushing his teeth down the phone.

"Do you feel like you've forgotten something really important?" She asked him desperately, half waving her hands in frustration. "Do you feel like there's a great big thing in your head and you should remember it but you can't?"

She heard him stop brushing his teeth. "Yup?" He answered hesitantly. She didn't believe him.

"Are you just saying yes because you're scared of me?" She asked in disappointment. Rory heard her tone.

"It's probably nothing, Amy," He said comfortingly, but she didn't take comfort in it. She knew it was probably nothing, it just didn't feel like it. "Like forgetting to invite some distant relative or something, someone worse than your Aunt."

"What did you say?" She demanded, surprised by his words. "Worse than my Aunt? What does that mean?"

"Sorry, sorry," He backpedalled. "Didn't mean it, you know I love your Aunt."

"No, that's not what I..." She trailed off. The words had felt familiar, but like everything else, it was probably nothing. "Never mind." She sighed. "I have to get ready."

"See you there, future Mrs Williams." He joked. She didn't reply. "Love you." He finished hopefully.

"Yeah." She said, hanging up. Rory had been no help, yet she found herself unsurprised. Whatever it was that was tormenting her was purely in her mind, nowhere else. There were no more relatives to invite, no flowers to arrange, no plans yet to be made. Only she was running behind, looking for an escape route that wasn't appearing. It was time to grow up.

She turned back to the dress, taking a deep breath, readying herself to put it on. She had to get ready; time was running out.


	28. Chapter 28

"Amy, the car is here!"

She caught herself again, staring off into space, not quite registering anything around her; dreaming. She blinked back into reality, realising that she had drifted off while staring at herself in the mirror. Her mother had done her makeup and hair for her once she had dressed, and she now was sitting on her bed, looking like the perfect bride; if only she could stay focused.

"Amy?" Her Mum arrived at the door, slightly breathless. "The car is here." She repeated, looking at her daughter. "You ready?"

Amy tore her eyes away from her reflection, confused as to the choice of emotions that she was feeling. Surely on her wedding day she would feel more... more excitement, more anticipation, less dread... less sadness. "Yeah, I'm ready." She replied, forcing brightness into her tone. Her mother took her by the hands and stood her up, standing close and examining her.

"How are you feeling?" She asked, referring back to their conversation earlier. "Any different now you have the dress on?"

"Yeah," Breathed Amy, lying easily. "Much better."

Her Mum didn't look like she believed her, but hearing her husband clattering around downstairs she tugged gently, but firmly, on Amy's hand and went downstairs, heading out to the car. It was a gorgeous car, her Dad had pooled together enough money to hire a Rolls Royce for the less than two minutes drive over to the church, and while Amy had never been that thrilled on the idea, Rory and her Father seemed to like it. They all got into the car, Amy remaining quiet while her Mum and Dad discussed how late they were. Amy didn't pay attention; wasn't it the bride's job to be late anyway? She sat in the car, staring out of the window, still trying to place in her mind what she had forgotten as she watched Leadworth move past the windows.

Within minutes they were at the church. Amy blinked, coming out of her daze and once again scolding herself for her inability to stay focused; her mind seemed to want to be anywhere but here, and on her wedding day, that really wasn't a good thing. Her Dad appeared at her door, opening it with a comical bow.

"Your destination, Miss Pond." He said with mock seriousness, and she forced a smile on her face. She could do this.

"You're here!" She heard, and she looked over her Dad's shoulder to see her Aunt Sharon tottering over to them, unsure in her high heels. "You're late."

"I'm the bride; I'm meant to be." Amy replied, the words quick on her lips. She could get through this.

"You look wonderful, dear." Her Aunt said, taking her hand and looking her up and down. "I knew that dress was the right one, don't you think?" She looked past her to Amy's Mum. Amy turned too, and saw tears sparkling in the woman's eyes.

"She does." She said, her voice choking a little as she grabbed Amy for a hug. "My little Amelia, all grown up."

"Oh, Mum." Amy replied, slightly embarrassed. Her Mother cleared her throat and straightened her fascinator, an oversized silken flower type thing on her head.

"You ready?" She asked.

Amy set her jaw and straightened her shoulders. "As I'll ever be."

"Good enough for me!" Her Dad said, taking her by the arm. "Sharon, go tell them to start."

"Right." Her Aunt tottered off again, back through the doors of the church with Amy's mother, leaving the girl and her Father alone. He turned to her.

"You excited?" The man asked, a broad smile on her face.

"Excited, nervous; all the same." Amy replied. No need to worry her Dad too much; it was like her Mum had said, Amy would know when she saw Rory at the front of the church – she would know she wanted to marry him.

"I was the same," Her Dad told her as he led her to the doors. "Couldn't wait to see your Mother walking down that aisle towards me. Best day of my life; other than you being born, of course." He corrected himself quickly. Amy nodded, not trusting herself to speak. She looked down at the skirt of her dress, building up her courage; she could do this. She could do it.

They heard the music start, the wedding march, and Amy knew her time was almost up. She looked up to her Dad, who smiled reassuringly, then looked behind her, surveying the scenery. It was a nice day, the sun was shining and she could see right across the fields and over to the rolling hills to the west of Leadworth. There was hardly anybody around, all the town were in the church already for the wedding; the only person she could see apart from her Father was a woman off in the distance, probably on a Saturday morning walk. She could just about make her out; a long black coat, and golden curly hair.

She felt herself gasp quickly, and was struck with a sudden sense of familiarity once again. Had she seen that woman before?

"What's wrong, Amy?" Her Dad asked having heard her.

"Who's that woman?" Amy demanded. "Who is she?"

Her Dad looked quickly up, shielding his eyes from the sun. "Not a clue, Amy, I don't think she's local." He looked back down to his daughter. "What's wrong? You're crying?"

"Am I?" Amy asked, touching a hand to her face and finding a tear rolling down. She wiped it angrily away. "I'm fine."

"Just a bit emotional: big day." He told her soothingly and patted her on the shoulder. He looked up suddenly, remembering what they were there to do. "Are you alright to go in now?"

"I'm fine." Amy said. "Fine, I'm fine; just fine."

"Fine." Her Dad joked, and she forced a smile. Taking a deep breath, she nodded her head and allowed her Father to lead her into the church. She kept the smile plastered on, taking one step at a time into the building, looking around, looking for all the world a blushing bride; smiling round at all the guests and receiving their smiles in return, before looking up to her fiancé, waiting at the end of aisle for her, a much bigger smile that hers on his face.

This was the moment; this was the moment her Mum said that she would know. This moment that she looked at Rory Williams, her fiancé, the man with the smile on his face, the man that waited years for her to be ready for him. This was the moment that she knew.

* * *

_So close to being done now! Four days till the deadline, 4 days till Series 6 starts. I am SO excited, you would not believe._

_Enjoy the cliff hanger - I know how you all love them!  
_


	29. Chapter 29

Amy felt her feet slow and falter. Her Dad tugged on her arm as he tried to take a step forward, but paused to look round at her as he felt resistance. He gave a gentle tug again.

"Amy, what's wrong?" He whispered to her, trying to pretend like everything was going as planned. Amy saw the congregation's happy faces turn slightly as they began to mutter to each other. She saw her Mum craning her neck to see what was happening.

She suddenly felt tiny. She couldn't move, terrified, glued to the spot as she finally let her eyes rest on Rory. She could see his face changed from what had been so happy seconds before to fear and confusion; he was jumping to conclusions, conclusions that were probably correct.

"Amy?" Her Dad repeated, tugging her hands again, not to move her forward, but simply to earn some form of reaction from her.

"I can't..." She whispered. "I can't do this." She moved her hand to wipe her forehead, glancing round again. Random items were catching her attention; tiny little things that made no sense, yet struck her as familiar: a boy's red bow tie, an old man's braces, the royal blue of a panel in a stain glass window.

"Amy, what do you mean?" He asked as the music slowed and stopped. Now everyone was muttering; she tried to block it out, but picked up on the basic gist: poor Rory. She looked to the man and could see the pain written across his face.

"_I'm sorry._" She mouthed to him, holding her stance for a fleeting second longer before pulling her hands from her Father's and walking back through the doors she had just come through.

The air was fresh on her skin as she began to cry. She knew she was crying, this time; something had broken inside her, the combination of all her anxiety and stress, her sudden realisation and something that _still_ wasn't understandable, something not yet tangible but was distressing nonetheless. She kept walking as she sobbed, out of the porch, through the churchyard and out of the gate. She walked past the parked Rolls Royce and into the field beyond where she had seen the woman earlier.

"AMY!" She heard behind her, and turned round to see Rory running up to her, her parents dragging behind and a small crowd gathering in the church door. "What are you doing?"

He caught up to her and stopped a few feet away, not touching her.

"I'm sorry." She cried, wiping her eyes. "I'm so sorry."

Rory's face was stoic as he looked at her, but softened slightly as he watched her struggle to stop crying. "What happened?"

"I don't know," She told him. "I just... I can't do this."

"Marry me?" He finished. "You can't marry me?"

She looked up at him, realising just what she was doing to him. This was awful; this man had waited so long for her to be ready for him, and she had said yes because she had hoped that she would be ready by the time the big day rolled around. He loved her so much and she just couldn't return it. He was her best friend, she loved him in every way but the way he needed.

"Rory," She said, stepping forward and bridging the physical gap between them. "I am so sorry."

He scoffed. "Yeah."

"No, I am," She told him. "I really am. I thought I could do this but I can't."

"Why not?" He asked desperately. "What changed?" Amy shook her head, and he continued. "You were fine yesterday, what changed so much overnight?"

Amy thought back fleetingly, trying to pinpoint the change, and could think of nothing that was striking. She had dreamt her dreams again, but that wasn't new.

"Amy!" Her Mum called as she finally caught up, her heels sinking into the soft grass. "What's happening?"

"I can't do this, Mum." She told her, repeating the sentiment, telling her the only thing she was sure of.

"Why, what's wrong?" She asked, placing the back of her palm on Amy's forehead. "Are you ill? Should we call the Doctor?"

Amy felt a shiver run down her spine as something in her Mother's words struck her. "The Doctor?"

"You feel a bit warm," Her Mum said. "Maybe we do need to take you to the Doctors?"

She looked over the woman's shoulder and could see everyone from the church still staring. "Everyone's looking." She muttered.

"Well, can you blame them?" She asked, not exactly accusingly, but not kindly either.

Amy stepped back from her Mother who turned back to Amy's Dad. "Can you get them all back inside the church, please?" She asked politely, but with an edge to her tone that couldn't be denied. The man turned around and went straight to them, ushering them back inside. The woman gave her daughter a fleeting look of exasperation before following her husband, leaving Amy and Rory alone.

Amy looked up to Rory again, who was looking back at her, the same expression on his face; the look of hurt. He didn't seem angry, just disappointed.

"I don't know why." She told him.

"Why did you have to let it go on this long, Amy?" Rory asked, and she flinched. "If you didn't want to marry me, you didn't have to wait until the last minute to decide."

"I thought I would figure it out." She told him meekly. "Mum said that she didn't know if she was sure until she was walking down the aisle; I thought I'd be the same."

"But you're not." He finished, sitting down on a bench nearby and resting his elbows on his knees. He wiped his face slowly down with his palms, absorbing the information before turning back to her. "Is there someone else?"

"No." She shook her head, sure of her answer, yet there again was the annoying feeling that she had forgotten something. She knew there was no-one else, who else could she have met; she rarely left Leadworth.

"Wouldn't be surprised," He continued. "I mean, look at you," He gestured in her general direction. "You're gorgeous, you're amazing; I must've been crazy to think you'd actually marry me."

"Don't be an idiot." She told him, and he looked up in surprise. "You're amazing, Rory. You're kind, and patient, and yes, you are good looking." He scoffed, and she slapped him playfully across the arm. "You are! You're exactly the type of man any girl would love to marry."

"Just not you." He added.

"I'm the problem in this, Rory," She told him, sitting down beside him and taking his hands. "Not you."

He looked at her, smiling softly. "I had it all planned out. Us, married, kids. I was a Doctor."

"You had a ponytail." She smiled back, and she felt herself freeze. Where had that visual image come from?

"What?" Rory asked, slightly questioning her statement, but more her sudden change in manner. She unfroze, but the strange look on her face remained.

"It's like I said earlier; I keep thinking I've forgotten something, but can't remember what."

Rory frowned again, quickly, before looking away and across the countryside. He dropped Amy's hands, and she mirrored his position, staring across the fields too. She took off her veil, placing it in her lap. They sat like this for a few minutes, and Amy found herself picking random things out of the view; an apple tree, a sunflower, and a tiny little flash of blue from the wall at the other end of the field.

"So what now?"Rory asked eventually, and Amy stood up, looking down at him, then back at the wall.

"I don't know..." Amy trailed off, before beginning to walk. Rory looked at her in confusion for a few seconds, before calling after her.

"Where are you going?" He yelled, staying on the bench. He didn't really feel like following her, and instead just watched her as she walked away.

She stumbled a few times, her shoes and dress impractical for walking over terrain such as this, but ignored it, determined to reach the wall and find out what it was on it. She couldn't explain it, her need to reach whatever it was, but somehow now this had become her sole purpose in life, to get to the blue.

As she reached the wall she could finally see what it was; a small book, a royal blue book with a square panelled design. She picked it up with a shaking hand, the sense of déjà vu overwhelming now, and she hesitantly flipped the book open. It was empty.

She looked over to the church and realised that this was where the unknown woman had stood earlier. She looked around, determined to see her, but knew that she was long gone. She had left her book here. A thought flitted across Amy's mind that it could be a wedding present.

She began to walk back to Rory, book still in hand as she studied it.

"What's that?" Rory asked as she came back, and she looked back up to him.

"It was on the wall." She told him. "It's a book." She flicked it open.

"Wedding present?" He guessed, and shrugged. "Not that it makes much sense now."

"I thought that too, but why?" She asked him, not quite understanding where the idea had come from.

"Well you know the saying, that old wedding thing?" He reminded her, and suddenly looked concerned. "Amy, you're crying."

"I keep doing that." Amy told him, staring at the book.

"Are you alright?" He asked, but she didn't hear him, her mind was too busy. She was remembering, tiny little glimpses, picking up on the tiniest little things that made no sense but kept sticking out to her. The bow tie the boy had been wearing, the sunflowers across the field, the braces the old man was wearing, the apple tree, fish fingers and custard for breakfast, and most of all that blue, that beautiful, brilliant blue of the stain glass window and the book in her hands. All of this replayed in her mind as she felt a single tear drop from her face and land on the book.

"Oh my god..." She whispered as realisation struck, as things began to trickle back in, first a drip, and then a stream and then a flood of everything that she had forgotten.

"What, Amy?" Rory asked, touching her arm. She didn't notice.

"I remember. I remember everything."

"Remember what?" He demanded, and she finally looked at him.

"Can't you see?" She asked. "There's someone missing, someone so, _so_ important."

"Who?"

"Do you remember when we were kids?" She asked him, looking away and up at the sky. "I had an imaginary friend."

"The Raggedy Doctor? What's he got to do with anything?"

"He wasn't imaginary, he was real!" She cried. "I remember!" She yelled at the sky. "I brought the others back and I can bring you back too!"

"Amy, what are you talking about?" Rory asked again, scared, looking back to the church where he saw Amy's Mum watching, looking concerned. "Stop yelling!"

Amy smiled as she felt a breeze pick up. "Oh, you think you're so clever. I found you with words like you knew I would. That's why you told me the story when I was seven." She took the diary and waved it in the air as her hair began to be pushed back by the wind. "Something brand new, ancient, blue box; oh clever, oh very clever."

"Amy, what is it?" Rory asked, his mind starting to filter things in.

"Something old," She told him, taking a step back. "Something new. Something borrowed..." She smiled as she saw the old box begin to take shape. "Something blue."

"It's the Doctor." Rory said, his face falling into confusion as he remembered everything. "How could we forget the Doctor?"

Amy stepped forward and banged on the doors, her full force onto it. "Doctor!" She called, trying the doors. "Doctor, come out!"

For a few agonising seconds nothing happened, the doors remained closed and Amy was left outside. Her heart beat faster as time dragged on, and she placed a palm on the door, waiting. She felt it give, and the door swung open, revealing the man inside.

"Hello, Pond." The Doctor greeted her affectionately, a mischievous smile across his face.

* * *

_TWO DAYS! TWO DAYS LEFT! IN TWO DAYS WE WILL ALL BE SITTING WATCHING A BRAND NEW EPISODE OF DOCTOR WHO!_

_This also means two days until this story is finished... Still not sure how I feel about this. It's like my baby now..._

_RIP Lis Sladen, you'll be missed, you wonderful woman.  
_


	30. Chapter 30

"Hello, Pond." The Doctor greeted affectionately, but did not leave the safety of the TARDIS. Plus, he imagined now was not the best time to greet her exactly as he wished, considering the fact that Rory was only standing a meter or so behind her.

"Doctor!" She cried out, throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him fiercely, though briefly, as she clutched him in a tight hug. "You're here. I did it." She whispered.

"You did." He said proudly, though keeping a check on himself, still aware of Rory standing behind her, watching silently with a glare. As brilliant as it was to be back, which it was, and as magnificent it was to have Amy in his arms again, an event that had been severely in doubt, even with his clever plan; even though he was ecstatically happy, he held himself in. Rory was there.

He pulled himself away from Amy. "Hello, Rory." He said, greeting the man with a nod.

"Doctor." The once Roman, now ordinary human replied; no smile on his face, and with good reason.

"How are things?" He asked awkwardly, a slight grimace on his face.

"Been better." Rory spat out. "My wedding's just been cancelled, and the bride is running off with her imaginary friend."

The Doctor gave a half nod, unsure of what to say. He could talk down Daleks, he could make whole civilisations turn and run with his words, and he could make a human being look into their soul and see what he needed them to see; but awkward social situations? The Doctor had never been any good at that, in any of his incarnations. Especially when he was the bad guy; he was the other man, he was the thief.

Amy sensed this and turned back to her groom. "Rory..." She sighed, also unsure of what to say, what more could be said.

"Don't." Rory told her sadly. "I know how it is, I've always known. I've always been second to the Doctor, our whole relationship, no man could ever compete with him, especially not when it's for you." Rory swept his hair back with a hand, his speech becoming more agitated as he got angry. "How did I ever expect you to marry me? It's so obvious, now." He scoffed, turning away.

"Rory, I know you're angry," The Doctor began, unsure of what to say but knowing he had to step in, until Rory interrupted him.

"Yeah, I'm angry." Rory told him. "Of course I am. But I understand."

Amy looked at him, stress and guilt written across her face. "You do?"

"Of course I do." He told her. "Like I said; why would you choose me? He can take you anywhere you want, you can travel the universe, have adventures; why would you stay here?"

Amy stayed silent, guilty, as did the Doctor, and Rory continued.

"You never wanted to marry me." He finished. "Did you?"

"No." She agreed quietly. "But that wasn't your fault, you know that." She tried to reassure him.

"Yeah." He scoffed.

"Because I love you," She told him. "You're my best friend."

"Yeah, well, that's not enough, is it?" He finished. "You can't marry someone for that."

"No." She agreed, looking back round to the Doctor. "He was just there, Rory, I don't think I could've gone through with it even if I hadn't left with the Doctor."

"Thanks." The Time Lord said grumpily, his feelings momentarily hurt, though shut up and Rory and Amy's collective glower.

"Well, I had my chance." Rory conceded. "You gave me that much."

The Doctor nodded in return.

"What are you going to do now?" Amy asked him, wincing as she thought of everyone back in the church, and looked round to see her Mum and Dad staring at them from a distance, their mouths agape and their faces astonished. She waved briefly, and turned back to Rory.

"I'll stay here." He told her. "Do what I always planned; I'll finish school and become a Doctor," He glared at the Doctor. "A real one."

"Good idea." The Doctor replied proudly.

"Never was cut out for that time travelling business, not like you guys." He told them, rationalising his situation. "I belong here, in Leadworth."

"Rory-"

"I'll be fine." He told Amy, and he could see tears glinting in her eyes. "Go. Have fun."

Amy looked at Rory the Roman for a few seconds, debating what to do, knowing her options. She could stay, but she didn't want to; she could leave, and hurt Rory; she could marry Rory, but she knew she couldn't.

And then she remembered what was a meter behind her; the huge worlds of possibilities, and the man she loved, the man she had always loved, standing behind her in the TARDIS, waiting for her to be ready. It was a bad situation, an awful situation, and she didn't want to leave it like this, but she knew she had to leave. Life doesn't end up perfectly, life doesn't always give you a happy ending, sometimes life is hard, and difficult choices have to be made, and trust that somehow everything would turn out okay.

She walked to Rory, looking him square in the eyes. "I'm sorry." She told him, and grasped him in a firm hug. He resisted for a few seconds, before embracing her back, pretending for one last time that everything was okay.

She let go of him, holding back tears, and turned her back on him, walking back into the TARDIS and not looking back. She brushed past the Doctor, who swayed at the movement, then looked to Rory.

"You got her." The roman said, and the Doctor nodded.

"I shouldn't've." The Time Lord replied sadly. "I don't deserve her. She'd be better off with you."

"Yeah, well," He scoffed again. "You can't control Amy; no one can ever tell her what to do."

"It was always Amy's choice." The Doctor sighed. They stood in silence for a few seconds, both weighing the situation. It wasn't perfect, neither was happy with how it had ended up, yet they were both fighting to accept it.

"You'd better go," Rory said. "I'm sure there's a planet that needs saving."

"Probably." The Doctor conceded, and went to step back in, before sticking his head back out as an afterthought. "Take care of yourself, alright?"

"Yeah." The Roman replied, and stuck out his hand to him, offering a sign of respect, a peace offering. The Doctor raised an eyebrow, but shook it nonetheless, and was happy for it. "Take care of Amy." He finished.

"I'll try." The Doctor said sadly, before letting go of his hand and going back into the TARDIS, closing the door behind him, leaving the Roman behind him.

Rory smiled slightly as he watched the TARDIS vanish slowly from sight, hearing the familiar wheeze of the engine for the last time, or at least the last time for a while. He felt better already, now that it was gone, like he could begin to put it behind him. He understood everything; why she had left, why she couldn't marry him, and even though he loved her, and would probably always love her, he knew that he couldn't've married her, at least not happily, when she so clearly didn't want to.

Still in thought, he went to turn away, but his attention was claimed suddenly by something across the fields, a view that had been blocked by the Blue Box up until a moment before. It was a woman, a woman with fiercely wild golden curls, and a black dress on. River Song. He lifted his hand and waved, and the mysterious woman waved back, before pressing what Rory knew to be her vortex manipulator, and vanishing from sight with a bright flash of static.

They were all gone, and Rory was left alone. For some reason, he was strangely alright with this, and gave a sad smile as he accepted his fate.

* * *

_So Doctor Who tonight? I assume you all watched it? My brain is a bit fried from trying to understand it, but I LOVED it! Amazing, as usual. So, SO goood. Loved it. Loved. Loved loved. This series is going to be amazing. Even with the multitude of cliff hangers that are included BECAUSE MOFFAT HATES US AND WANTS US TO SUFFER!_

_One more chapter left. I know I told you that I'd have it done before tonight's episode, but... didn't work out. Words were not arriving. Now they have._

_Love you all. Message me if you want to discuss tonight's episode, or anything Who related in general. I'm lovely really, I don't bite. Much.  
_


	31. Chapter 31

The Doctor walked back into the TARDIS, shutting the door behind him and quickly programmed the console, setting it to begin travelling. He carefully avoided Amy's eyeline, suddenly aware of how socially awkward he was; he never knew what to do with a crying girl.

As soon as the TARDIS had left Leadworth he plucked up the courage to go over to her, and gingerly placed his hand on her shoulder. To his slight surprise she curled round into him, her hands in loose fists on his chest and her head leant into his chest. He quickly put his arms around her, holding her close as she sobbed quietly. It was a bizarre feeling; being aware of her sadness, but not being able to feel it, after being connected with her so intimately.

After a minute or so she had stopped crying and pulled herself away slightly, wiping her eyes and looking up to him. "Thanks." She muttered.

"Any time." He told her. Even without their connection, it had been nice to hold her like that, to comfort her. "Are you alright?"

"I think so." She told him. "Just been a bad day." She straightened up, hugging him properly, twisting her arms around him and pulling him close, grateful to feel him there.

"I'm sorry." He said gently, and she shook her head.

"Not your fault." She reassured him. "It would've happened anyway."

The Doctor stayed silent, thinking about the situation for a few seconds before shoving it in the back of his mind. He couldn't dwell on things, he shouldn't; 900 years had left him with a lot of things he couldn't dwell on. There was a lot of things at the back of his mind like that, friends he had hurt, people he had lost; Rory had plenty of company back there.

"I missed you." Amy whispered, and the Doctor knew it was true; if she hadn't, she wouldn't have been able to remember him at all.

"I missed you too." He whispered, before rethinking. "Well, no, I didn't."

"What?" Amy questioned indignantly, pulling away from him. The Doctor suddenly felt a strike of fear through him.

"I'm sure I would've, if I'd had time to." He told her, gingerly explaining as he stepped back. "I went straight from saying goodbye to right now."

"Really?" She asked, curious as she sat down on the sofa. Her eyes unfocused from the Doctor as he pulled a lever, and she looked across the TARDIS, her attention caught by something on the far side of the room. The Doctor looked up at her, confused by the look of fear on her face.

"Amy?" The Doctor asked, and she looked back to him, suddenly alright again.

"Why do I still miss you?" She asked sadly.

"What do you mean?" He replied awkwardly, though knowing what she meant.

"I can't feel you." She said.

"It's still broken." He told her. "I broke it."

"Can you put it back?"

"Do you want me to?" He asked, slightly anxious.

"Don't you want it there?" She asked, and he could see the hurt and confusion on her face again, yet, as unlike only hours earlier, could not feel it.

"I do," He said, looking at the console and pulling random levers, anxious and awkward. "It's probably not sensible to..."

"Since when have we ever bothered with sensible?" She said with a slight smile, and he could see her beginning to cheer up.

"I'm sure, once or twice," He thought back, unable to reach an example in his mind. "Well." He finished, casting an awkward look in her direction. She grinned back, taking pleasure in his awkwardness.

"So you can put it back?" She asked, stepping back up to him and taking his hand, kissing it seductively. He felt a pleasant shiver run down his spine, and she chuckled again.

"Yes, it's simple enough, really." He told her. "It works the same way as before."

"Then what are we waiting for?" She whispered, leaning forwards and sealing their words with a kiss, their first since the universe had restarted itself. They didn't speak for a few more seconds, until the Doctor backed away.

"What's wrong?" Amy asked, her brow creased in confusion and annoyance.

"Do you want to put it back?" He asked her gently. "You know how dangerous it is, now," he reminded her. "How much it hurt each time I almost... you almost..."

"Died?" Amy finished. The Doctor nodded, and she shrugged. "It was worth it." She told him with a smile that was so warm he found himself returning it automatically.

"Are you sure?" He asked her, echoing his words of a week ago when they had found themselves in a similar, yet very different situation.

"Definitely." She told him, waiting a second before leaning in and kissing him again, this time not taking no for an answer. She smiled as she felt him wind his arms round her waist, picking her up onto her toes and holding her close.

They kissed for several minutes before they let their lips split apart, only just.

"There's this island on Phordan Five..." He murmured teasingly, and she shook her head with a smile, their lips just brushing as she moved.

"Nope." She told him with a whisper.

"Or there's a very interesting rock formation in space in the Ronix galaxy..."

"Nope." She said again.

"Or there's-"

"Nope." She chuckled, interrupting him. "We're not going anywhere." She pressed her lips against his again, kissing him as she carefully started to lead him backwards, further into the TARDIS.

"What did you have in mind?" He asked her, still teasing, elated at the turn of events. Amy said nothing, merely tugging him backwards and kissing him again, and this time he didn't interrupt her as she lead him out of the console room and towards her bedroom.

Adventure could wait; they had other things on their minds.

_fin_

* * *

_And done! Sorry this last chapter took so long; I was putting it off with lame excuses and such - I didn't really want to finish. This is actually the first story I've ever started that I've finished... I'm rambling._

_Thank you all so much for reading it, and reviewing and favouriting and subscribing - genuinely couldn't've done it without your support, I would've given up long before now. I love you all soooooo much, and appreciate you all._

_Special thanks to smiles2go for putting up with me when I've been all moany and procrastinatory, and helping me out when I've been struck down with writers block. _

_And a quick plug for my friend, 12jammiedodgers - he's writing his first fan fic atm, it's called Suicide in '63, and I'm helping proof it and stuff- the alien is really creepy in this one, I've made sure of it._

_I love you all, and thanks again. Feel free to message me :)  
_


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